Guess where we are not?!

California! Our plane was due to take off on Sunday, but DC got the craziest snow storm since I’ve been here - over 2 feet of snow! It was beautiful but it stopped everything. We couldn’t venture more than a block from our house and there was no way our car was getting anywhere. Charlie and I have both been sick so with this crazy weather we haven't been out of the house (more than a block) in nearly 3 days now! Here are a few shots from Charlie’s first real snow. He didn’t seem to know what to make of it. He just stood there motionless. Then again I did have him dressed in 10 layers so he probably couldn’t move even if he wanted to…

The first flight that we could get on is for Tuesday at 10pm. We’ve been taking advantage of the time by doing more house work and eating all the food in the kitchen that I never thought we would ever actually eat. I think our freezer is officially void of frozen left overs and the cans on the shelves are quickly diminishing.

Merry Christmas!

First Date

Carlos gave Charlie a haircut and I'm not that happy about it. Charlie looks like a Beatle with short bangs. Surprisingly Charlie sat still on the bathroom countertop as Carlos used the kitchen scissors. His hair was getting in his eyes so I just wanted a little trim, but I'm not happy with the outcome. Here they are:

I think Charlie's temper is starting to show through. Carlos and I got in a fight about the hair and Carlos and Charlie got in a fight about Goldbug. Yep - Goldbug. Charlie pointed to a little green bug and exclaimed "Goldbug!" Carlos said that it wasn't goldbug and Charlie was devastated. He put his head in his arms and started crying. We usually skip that page now to avoid any more incidents.

I was in Atlanta this past week and so to make up for it we had lots of quality time this weekend. Charlie and I went to the Natural History Museum with Stephanie and her niece Stephie and then over to watch the ice skaters at the Sculpture garden. Then we joined a fabulous Bolivian feast at a friend's house and Sunday we joined a cookie decorating party. He really liked decorating the cookies but the outcome wasn't very appetizing! To go to the cookie party we actually fit another car seat in our tiny car! They looked so cute together - I felt like I was chaperoning a first date!

I forgot to tally words last week but I noticed that as new ones come in some others seem to disappear. He won't say 'quatro' anymore, but he has taken up: ojo, boca, teeth, manzana, socks, milk, soup & sopa. That makes 42. He says "Hi dada/mama" or "bye dada/mama" and he says "da ball" though I'm not sure he thinks of it as two words or just one. And for some crazy reason he is convinced that cows say "Baa" - no matter how many times I say "Moo," he says "Baa." No idea where he got his stubborn nature...

Charlie still loves trucks, but airplanes are a close second these days - especially after we saw President Obama's helicopter fly directly overhead and land at the White House. We went to see the national Christmas tree which is in front of the White House and were super disappointed to find it barricaded off and secret service standing gaurd. But then three huge identical helicopters flew overhead and Charlie went ballistic. "Airpa" (his version of airplane) "Airpa, Airpa" he screamed and his whole body shook with excitement. I thought Obama's would have been the middle one, but it was the last one. Soon afterwards the tree lit up and we were able to watch the trains going around the tree. He loved the trains.




Another favorite these days is saying "eew" to everything he finds gross - which includes every crumb, every spot on the floor, every misplaced thread...He says eew a lot - so much so that I didn't think much of it when he said "eew" when we were out walking this weekend. But he kept saying it and finally raised his arm up and screamed "EEEWWW" so I stopped and took a closer look. A bird had pooped on his sleeve! Lucky that he was grossed out and not tempted to touch it.

And finally his other favorite is finding Goldbug in the 'Cars and Trucks and Things that Go' book. On every page a 1 cm yellow bug is hidden somewhere and Charlie loves to find him. Here is a video of him finding Goldbug with Carlos.

Carlos is building some shelves on the 3rd floor and in classic Carlos style the entire room is turned upside-down and full of sawdust. And it's only shelves!! The really annoying part is that it is my office! So I'm sitting in a bed of sawdust. What a joke. Here is a shot of my office space these days...

`

Thanksgiving

I say this every month but this really is my favorite age!! I love that everyday he learns something new. I almost don't want him to get any older.

We had a delicious Thanksgiving dinner in Philadelphia with 4 little ones 2 and under! It was tough to get all the adults around the dinner table at one time even for a toast. But the spread was amazing and lasted for days. There was a 6 month old, a 12 month old, a 16 month old and a 2 year old. Baby Charlie had loads of fun playing with them and with the abundance of toys that my mom seems to have. The next day we helped babysit for cousins Wallis and Eli and wow - what a difference it is having 3 kids! We had 2-4 adults at all times and it was still tough. We spent the entire day feeding, bathing, getting ready for a nap, changing diapers, feeding again, napping again...and the cycle goes on. We didn't even leave the house. So much for having 5 kids!!

I realized that it's tough to count words because he is repeating everything, but I don't think he actually knows what he is saying, he is just practicing the sounds. He definitely learned: cracker, grandma, moon, snake (sounds like snack), "goldbug" (his new favorite book), airplane, ear and huevo - that makes 35. 65 to go.

Prior to Thanksgiving he had a playdate with a pretty cute chick. He seemed mostly interested in taking her toys...Fortunately she wasn't too bothered by him.

He also got to see Aidan who could hold his own when Charlie tried to run off with his toys. Aidan was playing with an activity table and instead of playing along side Aidan or even elbowing him out, Charlie simply picked up the entire table and started to walk away with it. Aidan was nice enough to share his toys and my lap.

He also got ready for Thanksgiving by practicing his Turkey noises:

Boston Visit - 48 hours of things going wrong

In the span of 48 hours I managed to almost miss my plane, rent a car that smelled like vomit, lose my car keys, sit through a football game in the pouring rain with the baby in a poncho and get harassed by Southwest Airlines to prove that Charlie was my child and that he was under 2 years. Oh and Charlie officially doesn't sleep outside of his crib. He flopped around and around causing both of us to get no sleep. Luckily seeing my brother Charlie play football made it all worthwhile. He did great. He played the whole game and Middlebury beat Tufts 26-7. He had an interception and tackled some one so hard I could hear it in the bleachers. ouch. Baby Charlie also did surprisingly well given that it was in the middle of his nap time and he was sitting in a poncho. He finally passed out in the 4th quarter, but not before he ate a whole hot dog! It was the best $1 hot dog investment ever....

We did get to fit in a few good things too - including seeing his cousin Toby and visiting Ellie Hong (and her parents). Charlie loved Mandy and Leti's "gatos" and loved visiting Ellie and her igloo. He gave her a kiss and played footsie with her. I think he was wooed by how she said his name "chah-lee" (at least I was....). Cousin Toby was super cute, but Charlie still had a hard time sharing. I even think I heard him say "mine." I really hope not....

Speaking of words yoga mama Liz was asking about many words he can say so I thought I should count them. I think he has a 27 word vocabulary. Our current favorites are "Gato" (cat in spanish) , "zapato" (I liked it better when it was 'zapatato') and "Appum" (he won't/can't say apple). I also love how his voice cracks when I ask him what a gato says - it's the highest pitched meow ever. That must be weird trying to express himself in 27 words. I figure I'll try to keep track until he hits 100.

1. zapato
2. sqrl = squirrel
3. gato/meow
4. agua
5. mano
6. truck
7. car
8. up
9. ball
10. bottle
11. pacha (bottle)
12. book
13. ma = mas
14. vaca
15. dos
16. quatro
17. dog/ruff
18. duck/quack
19. bear
20. bye
21. pan (bread)
22. bath
23. mama
24. dada
25. park
26. nana = banana
27. appum = apple

On another note, the green machine is officially retired and the car I use broke down which meant we were left with THE MUSTANG. ugh. I've tried my hardest to avoid that thing out of pride, but we had to get a ride last Friday. All I could think was: "wow - it's been a year and I feel like I get car parts delivered every day and it still looks like as much as a piece of sh*t as when he first got it!" no seat belts, DEFINITELY NO SHOCKS, it barely started, rattling noises, no A/C, no radio...I mean it's amazing it took us the 5 blocks we needed to go.

Little Monster in a Bowtie

I forgot to post this one, but I love it

5 Cities, 4 Weeks

It’s been an eventful few weeks. The three of us flew to San Francisco after which Carlos and the baby continued on the Reno while I stayed for work. They joined me at the end of the week so that we could all go to Monterey for Veronika’s wedding. It was so nice to be in California. The weather was amazing, the food was as good as I remember and we got to see friends/family. We stayed with our friends Robert and Monika who have a beautifully renovated house, two adorable kids and the most amazing play room. Charlie had a great time following them around and playing with all their toys.

Monterey was great too. Veronika and Tali had rented a beautiful house where we all stayed. I got to connect with an old friend of mine from Czech Republic after almost 15 years!! She has 3 darling boys, a trampoline in her backyard and lives 5 minutes from the beach. What a life! We used to have so many fun adventures in Czech including sneaking away from our host families to Budapest and sleeping on the Charles Bridge (not that comfortable). Veronika and Tali’s wedding was beautiful. It was at Holman Ranch and it was a gorgeous California day. Baby Charlie walked me half way down the aisle before realizing that everyone was looking at him and starting saying "up, up, up" and grabbing my dress. Seth and Carolyn did a fantastic job helping to take care of him. They had gotten him a bow-tie to go with his dress shirt and it was SO cute! He left it on the whole night! That bow-tie got a lot of miles as Seth wore it for his birthday too. You can decide who looks cuter.

The Halloween party before the wedding was great. Carlos was a cockroach, I was a flapper girl (though it was kindof a ghetto get-up), Veronika was a killer bee, Tali was Count Chocula and Seth and Carolyn were Princess Leia and Hans Solo. The best was the next day trying to recognize people - either I had no idea who they were or I was shocked that their costume wasn't really a costume - they really looked that way!!
After that I was back on the road to Istanbul and Brussels for work. I was only in Istanbul for 2 days and didn’t have time for sightseeing though I did manage to fit in a visit to the Blue Mosque, a ferry ride across the Bosphorus and walking around Taksin square. We had wonderful hosts there via the local Unilever staff who took us to dinners on both the Asian and European sides and who suffered through my litany of cultural questions. I did get to try a fish from the Bosphorus and was surprised by how tasty it was. From there I was off to Brussels where it was cold and rainy, but quite nice. After the meetings a few of us did a tour of the chocolate shops and loaded up - I spent 97 Euros on chocolate!! For the weekend I flew to Switzerland to see a friend and meet her new baby, Prahlad. I loaded up on smelly cheese which stunk up my whole bag, but I was glad that customs didn't sniff it out.

Pumpkins and Apples

Despite the fact that I dressed as Annie for 3 consecutive years and haven't had an impressive custome in the last decade I still LOVE Halloween. And even though we will be missing trick or treating this year, I didn't want to miss our 3rd annual pumpkin carving festivities. So we journeyed out to Maryland with the Ralles' to help Charlie find the perfect pumpkins. Clearly picking pumpkins and apples and seeing animals seems like a quaint idea to a few other people too...luckily we got there early, but by mid-day it was chaos causing Mike Ralles to assert that he was never having children!

But it was totally worth it as Charlie loved the animals, the 'trucks' (hayrides), the pumpkins and the apples. In fact he loved the apples so much that he learned how to say the word - it still sounds more like 'appum' rather than 'apple.' In fact yesterday he woke up saying 'appum.'

We walked out of there with 18 lbs of apples and about 100 lbs of pumpkins. As for carving, the pumpkins may not have been quite as inspired as last year's Obama and Palin, but they still turned out great.