Spicy Girl

Nakiah is my spicy little princess!!

In her I've found the perfect mix of attitude, sensitivity, independence and affection. She keeps me on my toes and makes every day a new adventure.

She is caring, sweet, exciting, spontaneous, fun loving and has a pretty big heart for such a little girl.

She is a nurturer and a storyteller. She is observant and inquisitive and has a memory that surprises me. She loves to play with her imagination and bring you into her world of fun. She is a Mommy's girl but can't get enough of her Auma. She loves spending time with her Daddy but often tells me "I need my Auda". She is the best big sister and is so good at making Kicen laugh. She smothers him with love almost as much as Mommy does. I am so proud of my precious girl

Happy Guy

Kicen is my happy little man!!

I can honestly count the number of times he has really been unhappy. He is by far the easiest baby I've ever met and I could not be more in love with him.

He is happy, fun, easy going, lovable, sweet and so easy to please.

He is a thinker and an explorer. He is patient and even tempered. He can play by himself and loves to roll around. He knows his Mommy's voice and gets excited when he hears me. He absolutely adores his sister and is content just watching her play. When he sees Daddy he gets a huge grin on his face. If Auma doesn't pick him up right away when she walks into a room, he starts to growl and he loves to play with Auda, even though Mommy thinks its still too rough.

I am so proud of my precious boy!

"I eat Mommy's chocolate"

One morning, while I was at work and Corey was home with the kids, he came out of the bathroom and found this....

When he asked what she was doing, she told him "I eat Mommy's chocolate" Apparently I had left a Lindt Truffle on the coffee table and Nakiah decided to have it for breakfast.

A Girl & Her Snail

Daddy & Nakiah constructed a PlayDoh snail one evening.

Nakiah was very excited about it.

Photographer In The Making

Its no secret that daughter is Miss Independent! She picks out her own clothes, down to her underwear. She picks, not only what shoes to wear, but what shoes to buy. She picked her own dress for her first dance with Daddy. The girl has an opinion about everything and its usually a pretty strong opinion. Recently, she's been very insistent upon taking picture herself. She really likes to take pictures of brother. I've told her not to take the picture until she can see him (or whoever) in the screen. There is usually a pretty elated celebration when she has discovered her subject on the LCD screen and then she snaps it. I must admit...she's not that bad.

I like to think of them as more abstract photos. ;-)

She Loves Her Veggies...

...especially when there is "dippit" involved!

Learning to Fly

In true O'Neil baby fashion (he's taking after his sister) Kicen learned to "fly" before he learned to crawl....

She PICKED A Good One

Auma picked this outfit...

Nakiah made it work

Future Plumber?

One thing I've learned having two kids......

....it is next to impossible to get two kids to look at the camera at the same time!

2 Kids in the Tub

Nakiah has gone from loving bath time, to loving playing with her toys in the water and HATING "washing hair time"!! She is completely fine until I grab the cup to get her hair wet. She used to lay down in the water and let me rinse her hair all at once. For some reason that has changed and most of the time she screams when the water is poured over her head. She does not like the water "drippering" in her eyes.

Kicen has been pretty indifferent about his baths. He is a pretty laid back little boy, so easy going and easy to please. Since he's been sitting up, he is starting to enjoy bath time even more. He likes to splash the water with his hands and kick his feet to make waves. He too hates hair washing time. He gets pretty made at me, arches his back and stiffens up. Needless to say, it makes bath time in the big tub an adventure.

Last night Corey and I (and Kicen & Nakiah) discovered that bath time together is WAY more fun....and efficient!! Nakiah liked throwing the ball at Kicen's head.....and Kicen liked Nakiah throwing the ball at his head and watching the water splash as the ball fell into the tub. For some weird reason, Kicen laughs hysterically when Nakiah hits him on the head with things. We have to keep a close eye on this little game due to the fact that Sister insists "Kicen like it" no matter how hard the object is.

Nakiah really wanted to help clean Brother. She kept scooping water in her measuring cups and asking is she could "dump it on Kicen's head."

The two of them played very nicely together and if I could get Kicen to stop lurching backward every time he got excited, bath time would be so much easier....and less scary for Mom.

First Dance

The first Father Daughter Valentine Ball that my department put on was in 2008...I've been waiting since that day for Corey to take my baby to her first dance. Last weekend, I finally got what I've been waiting for. Corey took Nakiah to her very first dance. Nakiah picked her dress out all by herself. (its a size 7 and had to be adjusted by Auma, but she loved her "married dress" and didn't want any other) She picked the color of her corsage and Daddy even let her pick his tie.

Keith and Allyson joined in on the fun too!

Look how grown up and beautiful she is....Keith cleaned up nicely too. ;-) Nakiah was so attached to Allyson, she even had to follow her into the bathroom

Their first dance

She loved her flower so much, she was worried about it all night and kept telling me "thank you very much for my flower"

Twisting away

They were trying to get Nakiah to really shake it

I think she really liked watching everyone dance

Picture time

Keith had some great dance moves!!

Slow Dancing

Macarena time!!

Corey was trying to get Nakiah to follow everyone else...

...she got a bit lost

but she was loving every minute of it!!

I think this was the only break she let them have

except of course for sack time

Beautiful Allyson

For some reason, my daughter loves water fountains!

This was really a treat since I rarely let her use them.

She really knew how to shake her booty

She was so excited all night long!

Allyson was so great at helping Nakiah learn the moves

This quickly became Nakiah's favorite move of the night

She also loved the circle dance

She even got to dance with Keith

She really liked making wings for the Chicken dance

Apparently these Chickens dance on the floor

A dance just wouldn't be complete without YMCA

Last Dance...and a kiss goodnight

Nakiah was having so much fun that she didn't want to leave. Corey said she screamed in the parking lot when he put her in her seat. She kept asking for "more dance, please". Nakiah eventually passed out on the way to ice cream, so Corey turned around to bring her home. When Nakiah woke up in the drive way and realized she was at home, icecreamless, the tears started again. Corey had to run to the store to get icecream while Nakiah stayed at home with Auma and continued to ask for "more dance". She had a blast and kept asking to go to the dance again all weekend. It was a huge success and I can not wait for next year.