Santa Came to Town

Christmas was so fun and the kids make it magical. It was exactly how I imagined it with shrieks of excitement and all. We were in Philadelphia where Charlie had fun playing with his cousins Wallis and Eli. On Christmas morning we kept them in the kitchen until everyone came downstairs and then they ran into the living room.

They dove at a model train set and a house that my mom made; Eli let out a scream that was almost youtube worthy. The house was all home made and came with people, furniture and 2 cars and it looked a lot like our rowhouse actually except that it had a 2 car garage....:)

The kids had so much fun opening and playing with presents. And there were even more toys to play with at my dad's house. Surprisingly there was no meltdown despite delayed naps and over stimulus.

Abuela is fostering my dreams of a boy band by getting Charlie a guitar and drums sticks. Check out charlie's unplugged version of B-I-N-G-O! He is a virtual one man band now. He has finger drums, regular drums, a guitar that plays songs, a regular guitar, a keyboard and he goes back and forth.

Unfortunately Charlie has been refusing his nap and given that he is no longer in a crib he paces around his room. The worst is that he can now open his door so he walks into the hallway and declares "I'M AWAKE!!!" He says it with so much joy as if we should be proud of him. Ugh - I can't give up his naptime.

Charlie and Diego Elves

I couldn't resist 'elving' my children: http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/G279mo0WMD4RtcOj1v08

Cars for Everyone

Charlie enjoying a candle-lit dinner at his table

Diego at his 4 month doctor's visit

Charlie in Diego's crib!

Charlie is definitely ready for Christmas. Apparently Santa is getting him a car present. And when I asked Charlie what presents we should get for other people he did not hesitate one bit: "cars and trains." Cousin Wallis gets a "little car", tia Veronika gets a "train", tio Seth gets a "car" and Abuela and Grandma get a "huge car" and so on. I guess that makes Christmas shopping easy!

It seems that my sweet Charlie may have come back though he still often refuses his nap, is bossy and when tired he takes irrational behavior to a new level. But he is very affectionate and demands a kiss and a hug anytime we even climb the stairs. When I come down to visit on work days and then have to go back upstairs I need to ask his permission and reluctantly he'll say: "ok -mommy - you go work - you go have a call 'hello,hello, hello.'" I guess that's how he perceives my work - I spend the day on the phone saying hello....

Diego continues to be my bag of sugar. He had his 4 month appointment this week and is exactly average - he weighs 15 lbs 2 oz which is the 50th percentile. His height and head are also exactly 50th percentile! So much for my fat babies! Even though he is smaller than Charlie was he seems to be supporting my theory that 2nd babies are tougher than their first born siblings. He got 2 shots at his 4 month visit and didn't even cry. He did cry however when he got hit in the head by a flying bottle (which Charlie may have thrown....). His sleep seems to have regressed - he used to be waking up at 4:30-5:30am, but recently he is up and ready to cuddle at 1:30am. And he certainly needs to be put to sleep at 7-8pm. We found that out the hard way when we brought him to a Christmas party. He screamed bloody murder for 20 minutes out of exhaustion before collapsing asleep. Other than that he has taken to his index finger and finds peek-a-boo increasingly funny. He has no interest in rolling over or crawling. Here he is at his doctor's appointment.

I've been having flashes of life with Charlie in 10-15 years- it's like I can already imagine him as a teenager. Last weekend he went to his first CD "release party" - literally it was a release party for kids music in a black box theater - and I could imagine him going to concerts as a teenager. He wanted to get up and dance but wouldn't let loose so just swayed his hips - like he didn't think it was cool to dance too much. And then there is the way he wears his hats - he pulls them almost entirely over his eyes so he can barely see. What is that? Sounds like an obnoxious frat boy in math class! Here he is at the CD party

"I love you Diego"

It took Charlie 4 months but this weekend he finally said "I love you Diego!!"

Last weekend was our first ever Holiday party which helped us celebrate our first ever Christmas tree and our newly tiled fireplace! Carlos tiled the day before and morning of the party which reminded me of how we were putting door knobs on minutes before our inauguration party 2 years ago. Some things never change. Luckily my mom and aunt Mary saved the day by helping to cook and decorate. My mom made all the kids gingerbread houses and Mary cooked 2 hams. I didn't have my camera for the party, but here is the gingerbread house that grandma helped Charlie decorate. He loves this activity (including dismantling it) so we spent much of today decorating cookies.

To find our perfect Christmas tree we ventured to a tree farm in Middleburg. It is a great tree and I appreciated the process, but Home Depot probably has just as good trees for half the price....

I left for the airport at 5:30am after our holiday party and spent the next 3 days in Atlanta. It was my first trip since having Diego. Let's just say that as soon as I got off the plane I sprinted to get a taxi. Three days is a long time! Carlos stepped up and took care of 2 babies!!!! At least for part of the time...

Thanksgiving!!

We had a full house as Carlos' family came to celebrate Thanksgiving here. It was super nice of them to come to DC, because traveling with both kids in the midst of holiday madness didn't seem like fun. Eric and Dorine were also here from Philly and San Francisco so we finally made use of the murphy bed upstairs as well as our air mattress. It was the first thanksgiving that we've hosted and everyone took on a task which was great because there was no way I was going to cook a turkey. I have no idea what to do with a bird of that size. The meal was delicious as was the mulled wine we drank by the fire aftewards. It was the first fire of the season which was so cozy that it ALMOST made up for the fact that winter has arrived.

On Friday we visited some friends who just bought a house on the Hill and Charlie played music with him. Actually the whole family ended up with an instrument, but Charlie was the only one who demonstrated much talent....







Charlie loved the company and the attention - especially because he is becoming very bossy. He made tia Veronika and Abuela sing and dance and march in a line. He also decided that he needed to change Abuela's diaper; she had to lie down and he would get the wipies and go through the entire routine. He is even bossy in his sleep. We tried to move him while sleeping into our bed to give Veronika his room. Unfortunately what ensued was a night of getting kicked in the head and stomach every 30 seconds. Carlos slept with his head on the other end of the bed and when I tried to do the same Charlie stood up indignant. I guess he missed his punching bag. By 5am he was up and doing dance moves.


At one point over the weekend I was changing Diego and realized that Charlie was being awfully quiet. I found him in the closet with my lipstick - as you can see he didn't quite find his lips...

The Boys Were Away

Carlos and Charlie were away for over a week to visit Abuela in Reno. It was a big adventure and supposedly Charlie did great on the airplane rides. I packed him presents, DVDs and lots of snacks, but mostly he just wanted to play with a cup of water. Go figure. He had so much fun at Abuela's house that he didn't seem to miss me at all and certainly had no interest in talking to me on the phone. Whenever I called and asked to talk to him he would either say no or give me one or two words before darting off to play. Carlos took advantage of me being 3,000 miles away to give him a less than flattering haircut. I don't even know how to describe it, but it looks kindof like a wig and the curls are gone. I'm still mourning the loss of the curls.

Although they didn't miss me, I did miss them....eventually!! It was nice to have some time alone with Diego and have a quiet house! Diego is so portable that I took advantage of the time to go to Philly and New York to see family and friends. We celebrated my mom's birthday in Philly and then Wallis' birthday in New York.

Diego continues to be my little bag of sugar. He loves to sit up now, smiles all the time and is quite intrigued by his hands. Sometimes his eyes go cross-eyed as he tries to focus on his hand which he brings 1 inch in front of his face. He also loves to eat his fist and then has a crazy expression as though he wonders who just tried to gag him. Fortunately he started to put himself on a schedule because his mother was too delinquent to do so. We are still not sure what color his eyes will be as they are still a steel blue color. It's hard to believe that with two brown eyed parents he would have anything but brown eyes, but I guess we'll see. I've read that they can change up to 9 months.

Unrequited Love

Sadly Charlie is already learning tough lessons about love. At 2 years old he has fallen madly in love with a 20 month old girl name Anya who does not seem to love him back with the same intensity. Clearly at 20 months, she just isn't mature enough to appreciate true love. He talks about Anya, day dreams about her and when he goes to school he insists on holding her hand at all times. Anya isn't the most verbal yet, but you'll occasionally hear her yelp as she tries to escape Charlie's grasp. But Charlie is not taking the rejection lying down. He follows her around and when she pushes him away...well, he takes her toy so she can fully focus on him. I even caught him pulling her by the leg when she tried to scurry up the slide away from him. Here is the young couple at playschool.

Charlie is not only passing around kisses, but also his cold. He gave Diego his most recent cold and poor Diego ended up with an ear infection. My sweet bag of sugar Diego was so sad and looked at me with these eyes which said 'mom, why did you let this happen to me?' I felt terrible. He doesn't like the medicine much, but seems to be doing better.

Last week we got to see some of our favorite families for a sushi making happy birthday party and the babies posed for some group photos.

Over the weekend we were in Philly and Charlie had a fun adventure with grandma and tia Mary riding the train into town and talking to the 'captain.' I guess the conductor gave Charlie lots of tickets to hold and gave him some candy. Luckily he relinquished the candy to aunt Mary and then had fun saying 'don't tell mommy!' I'm not sure where he got that, but it's not a good sign if he already likes to hide things from me!

Halloween!

Charlie was in full character for Halloween! Not only did he have a great home-made costume from my mom, he also lived up to his monster of all monsters character - Max from Where the Wild Things Are! After a fruitless search online for white fleece footed pajamas my mom made him the perfect Max outfit. Sadly it took me more time to look online than it did for her to find fleece, make it and bring it down. It sucks not being talented!

The weekend was so full of festivities that on Monday Charlie ran around the house yelling "I want to go to a party!!" On Friday we went to 'Hilloween' at Eastern Market where there were hundreds of kids in costumes. Charlie loved seeing the other costumes - in particular he screamed and waved at every Elmo he saw. He went on a hayride - or a 'caballo truck' as he called it in his urban spanglish. Saturday was the Rally for Sanity and we had a post-rally party. It reminded me of inauguration with people crowding the streets and the festive atmosphere. It was so crowded that we stayed on the periphery and as a result couldn't hear much. Charlie liked his ride and seeing some of the absurd outfits.

On Halloween we headed to East Capitol after Charlie practiced saying trick-or-treat all weekend. Of course he clammed up when it came time to say it. He did however gladly accept candy. He wasn't taken by the Secret Service or the Obama girls but he was obsessed by a big panda. A week later he still talks about the Panda.

Not only was he a cute Max but he played the part. After trick-or-treating we went to a friend's birthday party and an exhausted Max threw a temper tantrum and spilled a glass of water all over the birthday girl's dinner....

Diego slept through most of the festivities and indulged us as we tried on various costumes.