Untouched photo

I love vibrant colors. I love flowers. I love things that remind me of where I secretly wish I lived: Hawaii. We walked downtown today, checked out books from our local library and chatted with people along the way. It was a great morning.

Lots of sippy cups, less bottles

Today we went to the beach

Which means summer is almost here! Kirk surfed with Sloan and his nephews while Malia, Jurnie and I dug lots of big holes. The Wares came down for a while too. It was a good day.

11 Month Old Malia!

Look who's 11 months today!!!

I still can't believe she is only a MONTH away from being 1.  Weird.  And don't laugh that I took her 11 month photo in her highchair- it's the only way to get her to stay still!

She's a mover and a shaker this one:)  And we are constantly laughing at her and the funny things she does and says.  She may be destined to be a ham, but either way, she's a lot of fun to be around.

Here are some of Miss Malia's updates for this month 11:

• She is stilllll growing!!  Put her next to a year and a half old and she may still be taller.  This girl is an amazon woman.  I don't know if the growing is going to stop or if we need to get her signed up for volleyball stat.  She is 31 and some odd inches long and 22ish pounds.  I know because we had to take her in to the doc a couple weeks back for her 1st ear infection.  Thought we were going to bypass those terrible things, but not so lucky.  Oh well, amoxicilan and 10 days later and we're back to normal.
• She has 4 teeth now!  The top two sprouted this month and made for some sad days.  Not to worry though, I don't see anymore trying to poke through now.  That makes 2 on top and 2 on bottom.  We try to brush them everyday and Malia is NOT a fan.  She'd rather chew on the toothbrush.
• Her hair is coming in long, thick and.. blonde!  I had to finally cut her bangs a while back because they were getting in her eyes.  And this girl who used to let me put bows and clips and headbands on her tends to rip them out within a few minutes.  Sigh... I thought she was going to let me play dress up forever.
• Malia's schedule is changing.  I don't know if it's a combination of teething, traveling and that ear infection, but she is fighting the 2 naps a day.  She still wakes up around 8 (sometimes a little later and I have no complaints:) but doesn't want to take her first nap until 11 or 12! Today she didn't go down until almost 12:30!  I think I am going to experiment with the 1 long nap a day for awhile and see how she does.  She'll sleep for 2-3 hours and then will be tired and ready for bed by 8.  This makes my schedule harder though since I have a sleeping baby in the middle of the day, but at least we get to do more in the mornings (walks, run, beach, park, errands, etc.) and then we get to play with dad in the afternoons and evenings when he's off of work.  
• Poor baby has nightmares sometimes:(  Just a couple times so far, but she'll start to whimper in her room, I'll go in and she's sitting up reaching for me.  I'll pick her up, cuddle and swaddle her (yes, she still likes to get swaddled) and then give her a binkie.  That usually puts her back to sleep.  I have to admit, this new clingy and cuddly thing she's doing lately is something I LOVE.
• Her moving:  Well, she still doesn't love to crawl, although she knows how really well.  She prefers the scooting on her bottom still which allows her to take treasures with her wherever she goes.  One hand to scoot, the other to hold her sippy, a toy, her swaddle, mom's phone, you know, the basics.  She'll crawl if she's on blankets or our bed or occasionally on the carpet.  I am trying not to be worried since every baby seems to do it differently.  She likes to pull herself up but is not walking yet.
• Her diet these days is constantly changing!  One week she'll love string cheese and tomatoes, the next week it's apples bananas and bread/pasta items.  This week it's blueberries (by the cup fulls I swear) turkey and whatever we're eating.  We went to a local Italian place last night and she wanted mom's stuft shells and salad and dad's pizza.  It's hilarious when we try to sneak in a bite of her baby food because now she'll sometimes spit it out at us or give us this stink-eye look like, "thanks a lot."
• She is defining her likes and dislikes and is making that clear to us.  I put all sorts of bite size pieces of food on her tray for lunch and she'll sort through the things she likes and get rid of the things she doesn't.  She'll taste test them all and then throw the unwanted food on the floor for Hobbs.  And when she's done with her sippy cup- look out!  That thing is hurled at you or across the room.  We are working on "setting it down nicely"  but are far away I guess:)
• Her favorites are still: balls, balloons, water, the beach, the ocean, her baths, kids, babies, her sing-along songs in the car (I may lose my mind in the near future) her binkie when tired, she swaddler for comfort, her mommy when unsure about something, and her daddy to play with.  She loves her grandma (nana) and grandpa (papa) and pretty much anyone that will smile and play with her.  
• This month she has learned how to: Wave when someone says, "hi" or "bye-bye." Still good at saying dada, mama, baba, o-ee (for Kloe) and Da (for Hobbs).  She sings when you sing and loves to play the piano and her xylophone.  She's learned to open drawers and doors as well as close them (with a few sad incidents of fingers in the way).  She's learned how to "pat" doggies and understands "no."
• She totally has tantrums when getting out of the water; howbeit the tub, the pool, or the ocean.  HATES getting her diaper changed now and getting dressed.  Is not okay with the vacuum or the blender unless she is being held.
• I could go on about Miss Malia for hours.  I am so blessed that I am able to work from home AND stay home with her.  I love being a mommy and even though I get exhausted sometimes and just need to get out of the house alone sometimes, Malia is my best friend.  I love my green eyed, light haired silly girl.

We went for a girls' trip to Colorado a few weeks ago and had a GREAT time!  Thank you so much to my cousin Amber and Dom for hosting us and taking such good care of us!  I love my family because we excel at hanging out and visiting with each other.  I have almost all girl cousins and all but one of them were there for my cousin Maile's baby shower!  We are SO excited for her and her little peanut that is coming soon!  What will his name be??  That's a good question!

 We had beautiful weather in Denver for Maile's outdoor shower!

 Here's the guest of honor with some of her husband's family

 The theme was "Maile's little Peanut" and so we had peanuts and circus stuff everywhere:)

 You know what's funny:  I have so many blonde friends and when I get together with all of my cousins I feel like I actually blend in!  Here I am with all my cousins and my aunt Marcia and my niece (cousin's daughter) Rylie.  So fun to be with all of them!

Of course we were able to do all sorts of fun things while we were there!

 Tiegan did her Tahitian dance for us and was awesome!

 Teya did the Hula and was the best ever!

 We managed to get a family picture with everyone in it!  Thanks so much to Dom's friend who was there to take the photo!

Malia got lots of loving from her aunties and cousins (Hi Auntie Luann!)

 Malia bonded with her cousin who is 3 months younger, Kiyoshi.  They had a blast together!

 We celebrated my Uncle Marcus' birthday while we were there.  Lucky guy huh?  All these dark haired beauties and just him!  Tee hee!

 Malia played with her cousins and they took such good care of her!  She needs some siblings I think...

Malia went on a ride with a cute boy to the park

 There is still snow on the mountains in Colorado!  Crazy!  And it was so nice and hot there too while we were there!

My beautiful cousin Lori and the kids and me:)

 Malia with her poi ball. Yeah, she's a funny one this Malia.  She gets so fixated on certain things and won't let them out of her site (or grip) for hours and hours..  This day it was the poi ball.

 Malia with her Nana xoxo

 Fun at the local park

 Fun park day

Weird camera.  We're fuzzy and the background is clear.  I didn't bring my nicer camera with me.  Bummer dude.

 Dining out in Denver at this awesome restaurant that served bison and had a moose on the wall.

 Going to the Chalk Festival in downtown Denver

 

 It was hot and crowded but fun to see all the artwork and cruise the shops

 Just some of the neat stuff!

 Malia says, "I'm hot!  Let's find a place to cool off!"

And then we had to go home.  We were gone for 4 days and 3 nights.  We all shared one room with Malia.  We had a blast, but I am a light sleeper and Malia is noisy.  She did sleep right next to me one night and we cuddled which was the best thing ever.  It was good too since I missed Kirk. We are glad to be home.  We have been on the move a lot.  Malia had her first ear infection (the flying probably didn't help), AND she is going through her wonder week (s) where her schedule, sleeping, eating and temperament are off.  She is growing by leaps and bounds though!  I guess I'll have to blog about that another day.  Sorry, I'm tired and this post was kind of lame.  It'll be better next time!

Malia is rocking some attitude

Yeah, she's getting bossy

Let's try this

Mobile blogging

Thank You!
Chelsea Schilling

Sent from iPhone

Play dates and visitors!

We get lots of visitors and have many play dates around the Schilling household, and we love it!  Thank you to all of our friends and family that come keep us company:)

Malia LOVES her older boyfriend Matt!  They are so cute together. Matt and Brette had their baby Curran so Malia can't wait to play with him!  Which reminds me, I need to post pictures of that..

We like to play games and visit..

 We like to learn new things like crawling and scooting and getting into things..

 We like to make friends and hang out with boys;)

(Malia with her buddies, Tosh and Mason)

 We like to take pictures of cute kids..

 We like to share toys and see how bigger kids are learning to walk..

 We LOVE to play with the Brady girls that came down from Utah to stay with us! (We miss you already, come back again soon!!)

 We love girl time and making messes and funny hairdos..

We love getting hugs and kisses and spending time with loved ones!

There's never a dull moment over here and we sure are grateful for that!

Finger Foods

Let me tell you folks:  It's this face right here that makes me nervous to have more kids!  Not because I don't like it, but because I think I love it too much!! How in the world am I ever going to love another creature as much as this silly girl??  She is the light of my life!

 So, we've started the messy phase in our life of self feeding!  Malia still gets her oatmeal and mashed fruit in the mornings, and a nutritious baby food for lunch and dinner, but we incorporate other finger foods for her to learn to self feed.  Among the favorites are bits of fruit, string cheese, meat, pasta, puffs (along she is getting tired of these..) and just about whatever we are eating for that meal!  She loves food!   Knock on wood, but we have no allergies so far!  Yeah!  And her, um, digestive system if you will is still on track with all these new foods.

 I know she's my daughter for the fact that she prefers flavor and taste to the bland and boring foods.  For example: the other night we had spaghetti and salad and she was sooo over her baby food!  I decided to give her some spaghetti and even the salad, and she loved them both!  Her whole face lights up! She likes eating from my chopsticks if I am having a salad at lunch, enjoys the smoothies I make mid-afternoon, and gobbles up stuff on our plates all day:)  And she is getting so good at sharing.  She likes to make sure she feeds us some of her tasty food too.

It goes without saying, but I am constantly in awe of what this little lady is able to do.  She sorts through the food on her tray and grabs the pieces she wants with her chubby little fingers.  When she decides that piece is no good, she'll spit it out and give it to Hobbs who is always anxiously awaiting.  Of course this causes immense giggles which usually leads to Hobbs eating more people food than I would like, but whatever, Hobbs does well with people food too:)

 I love this girl. She needs to stop growing so I can enjoy all these little moments forever.  Right when I tell someone that "this is my favorite age," she does something new and exciting and manages to get cuter so the "perfect age" just keeps growing along with her.