Team House Work

Although Carlito likes being outside even if it's raining or freezing temperature - his mother doesn't so it's a good thing spring is arriving. To celebrate we walked to see the Cherry Blossoms this weekend and spent some time at the park. The sad thing is that I got my daily email about the upcoming Cherry Blossom race that I registered for and it turns out that I am supposed to be "tapering" now...I am not sure that I could taper any more given that I haven't started training yet...
Anyway, here is a him enjoying the swings at the park. I got him some outdoor shoes for cruising the playground, but they kindof cramp his style. He is getting used to them, but they must feel like moon boots on him.




We are in finish-working-on-the-house-before-our-jobs-explode mode. Unfortunately the baby isn't always a fan of home improvement projects. Carlos is accostumed to using me as his tool belt; e.g. instead of having the hammer, nails, screwdriver with him he likes to ask me to get them as needed. It wasn't until I gave him a tool belt and he still refused to use it that I realized it is his way of keeping me around. I am hopeful that with Carlito walking soon my job as minion will be replaced.

Car Sick

Carlito suffered through his longest car ride to date by traveling to Cleveland to see his great grandparents this weekend. We didn't make it any easier on him by leaving at 9pm and arriving at 3:30am!! The PLAN was to leave at 6pm...but of course we didn't get on the road until after 9pm and Carlos insisted on stopping in Pittsburgh to pick up house parts at midnight. Carlos convinced some guy in Pittsburgh to leave two 9 foot long carved wood pieces outside his store for us to pick up and shove inside our rental car...just to make the ride even more uncomfortable! The ride seemed to put the baby over the edge and he woke up the next morning grumpy, tired and SICK. We spent the whole weekend tending to his fever. We ended up in the emergency room last night after the doctor measured his fever at 104.5 and instructed us to go to the hospital. Four hours later we returned home with no more answers and $50 poorer.


Today he is feeling a little better and was practicing using his vocal chords as you can see in this video.

In this video he couldn't seem to get the scream out despite getting the mouth formation right:

Baby Brunch

Today Carlito enjoyed the company of six other 3-footers. While we parents ate yummy food the babies climbed all over each other, stared at each other and ignored each other. Carlito grabbed one baby's nose and made him cry.

Wardrobe Malfunction

Fortunately this blog has limited audience as I seem to have had a wardrobe malfunction in one of the photos I posted yesterday. It was quickly pulled before the FCC was called in and I'm replacing it with some shots from tonight as well as a clip of his new "inverse laugh." His new semi-laugh is done while breathing in.

Jury Duty

Again, as a sad indication of our domesticated life, it seemed to be an eventful week. But unfortunately we just upgraded our camera so I don't have many pictures.

We celebrated our 2 year wedding anniversary last week and to celebrate Carlos had to go change the lock on the other house at 10pm and I got summoned to jury duty. I knew I would get selected. I tried to think how I could get out of it, but with questions like: "Has any one in your immediate family been arrested for selling drugs?" or "Is any one in your family on the police force?" there wasn't much opportunity to get out. Yep - juror #5. I kindof feel like I am in a reality TV show (life imitating art imitating life?) - there are already cliques within the jury and I certainly would like the opportunity to throw some one (or multiple people) off the jury/island.

In the meantime Carlito has been partying - he stayed up until midnight on friday and then milled around peoples legs trying to kick shins like they were soccer balls on Saturday. He got his first exposure to the playground and held his own along side the big kids. We went on the swings AND the slide - woo-hoo! Carlito enjoyed himself though the park is a funny mix of teenage thugs and a parent pick-up scene. Here is mom and baby sleeping in after a late night:


I think we've officially given up on crawling. Instead it is all about how quickly he can do the Indoor Rug Loop. Check it out:



The house isn't even done with construction and now we have to think about baby proofing it!! It's dangerous enough for adults around here let alone those under 3 feet! He fits perfectly in the fireplace, the tool closet still has no door and we don't even have a railing over the stairs. ahhh!

We are all getting pretty attached to his caretaker Sandra and her daughter Leslie. Often we are still waking up when she comes in and Carlos is usually annoyed at the disturbance. However today was an example of vintage Carlos - he jumped out of bed, hurriedly got dressed for work and indignantly said "I thought Sandra was going to wake me up and now I am going to be late for work!" He was actually mad at her! I am pretty sure that she didn't sign on to waking up Don Carlos for work. Here is a picture of them all reading together. Carlito is VERY particular about which books he likes to read. He loves Bear Snores On, Goodnight Gorilla and Buenas Noches Luna but don't try to read much else or he'll have a fit.

Back from ATL

I just got back from a week in Atlanta for work which was the longest that I had been away from the baby. Last time I traveled for work I almost blew up my breast pump and this time I almost blew up my breast. Last month I was in Brussels and when I tried to use the pump it started to smoke – I guess there is a difference between 'converter' and 'transformer' plug adapters...This time I forgot one little, tiny, miserable piece but figured it would still work...How could such a little piece be so important? Well it turns out it is….Luckily Coke is somewhat family friendly and is equipped to deal with such emergencies.

Back in DC the baby was well taken care of with Carlos, Veronika and his caretaker, Sandra, all here to tend to his every need. Given my delinquency in writing I should note that he now has two bottom teeth and the top teeth are coming in too.

He thinks he can walk (check out his soccer skills below) and he is finally getting ticklish.




On the house front – we finally rented out the basement apartment!! And – of course – we got it done in the nick of time. We spent most of the night working and the baby and I were up at 6am on Saturday for round II. We had all hands on board as Sandra and her husband came to help out. That morning we retouched paint, plastered the inside of the fireplace (and set up a heat gun to dry it), fixed kitchen cabinets, installed the hood fan and finally we mopped one last time and closed the door. As soon as we closed the door, the new tenant drove up and started moving in. I ran inside to hide given how hideous I looked after the marathon work session so I am yet to meet her! The one thing we forgot to do was to take a photo of the completed apartment.