She's a Force to be Reckoned With

It's been enjoyable to watch Christina start to hold her own with her brother more and more in the last few weeks.  Don't get me wrong, she still adores the guy, but lately she doesn't just roll over and let him have his way.  When Dominic takes her toy these days, she immediately makes a loud, angry sound.  It's not as if she's crying to get a parent to intervene, it sounds more like a warning: you better give that right back, big brother!  Marcos has noticed this too, and it makes us both happy.  I'm sure there will be plenty of times she takes direction from him and plays games his way, but it's nice to know she's willing to stand up for herself.

How does Dominic take all this?  He has been calling her Baby Godzilla lately because she wreaks havoc on car line-ups, block towers, etc.  He's usually pretty good-natured about it, but he has learned to keep things out of her reach.  He also knows the trick of offering her a new toy if he needs the one she's holding. She doesn't always go for it, but it's worth a try.

Today we went to a puppet show at the neighborhood pool.  Dominic was more interested in the snacks than the show, but he did pay attention a little.  He ate a package of fruit snacks, then moved right on to a pack of animal crackers and immediately told me "After this I'm still going to be hungry."  Silly guy.  Christie wore her new hat from Tito and enjoyed playing with the empty packages from all her brother's snacks.  Maybe she's at the age Dominic was on one of our San Diego trips when he played with a package of airline peanuts for 20 minutes.

He told me to only take a picture of her and then he tried to help get her to smile.

New Niece

Sorry I have not blogged in so long. I was busy getting a new niece.  Actually, the wonderful thing about nieces (and nephews for that matter) is that we have this wonderful new little person in our family through no work of my own.  I think this must be a little what it's like to be a grandparent.  I love having access to a newborn I can hold and cuddle before going home and getting 8 solid hours of sleep.  Sorry, Steffi! I hope by the time you read this you are getting better sleep too!  I miss my own kids being that tiny, but all ages have their own challenges and perks I guess.

The kids have not met baby Robin yet, but here is a picture of the Gerow granddaughters less than 48 hours before Robin got the big eviction:

They are about 9 months apart and should start Kindergarten the same year.  What fun!  I babysat Robin last night, and she smiled in her sleep right when I said something about Christie.

And here is a picture of me holding the sweet girl in the hospital, when she was two days old:

I know you can't see much, but I thought I should let her mother reveal her in detail on her own blog.  We'll see when she finds the time. :)

My mom was in town for the big event, of course.  Her birthday is only three days after Robin's.  Here we are having cake with her:

Did anyone notice how short it was??  The other layer was sent to the hospital for Steffi and Austin since they weren't released in time to partake in the celebration. 

Here are some pictures of Christie.  She looks so darn cute in her sunglasses, but she will only leave them on for about .5 milliseconds. 

And here's a picture of Dominic in his "Chuck" shirt, being silly by wearing underpants on top of his shorts.