Memorial Day Weekend

Any transition seems to cause crazy sleep disruptions with my kids. Diego's move into Charlie's room has been less than smooth. The first night they both went ballistic; the second morning I found Charlie in Diego's crib; the third night Charlie climbed into Diego's crib to steal his pacifier causing Diego to wake up and cry hysterically. AHH!

We went to Chestertown for the long weekend which ended up being a perfect distance - far enough away to feel like a vacation but close enough to not be an insufferable car ride. We rented a little house that happened to be on the parade route. The tea party festival took over the town, providing endless entertainment for Charlie (the original tea party - not the political ones). The revolutionary war "marching men" paraded by the house and led us down to the town square which was full of all sorts of fun. Here they are watching the parade:

There was music, dancing, Ben Franklin dressed in a wool coat in 95 degree weather playing chess with kids, games from the 18th century to play, animals teathered to a booth (owl, hawk, turtle...), puppets (though Charlie was scared of the puppets), bagpipes. We saw the "toss the tory" competition as well as the pirate ship cruising the coast, but unfortunately we missed the reenactment of tea (and people) getting thrown overboard. Charlie also got up close and personal with a pregnant cow named Billie. He pet the cow who was being fed copious amount of silage leading up to being set loose in fenced area painted with gridlines. Festival goers could purchase a square for $10 and if Billie pooped in their square they got $2000. We were happy with the petting and didn't stick around for the pooing. The best part of the weekend for Charlie was all the attention he got from Abuela!

On the way home we tried a nearby crabhouse and over anticipated our skills. I got tired after 3 crabs and Carlos' mom thought the activity was too messy. That left Carlos to tackle the other dozen crabs on his own. He was determined not to let the crabs die in vain so he powered through those crabs much to our horror. Charlie loved watching the boats come up to the restaurant and Diego was kept happy with his own mallet (though I kept the crabs away).

Now that the weather is nicer we've taken the band outside. Here is Charlie rocking out on the porch with his boots on the wrong feet (as usual). Carlos is on the sax and Abuela is on the bongos.

Tio Charlie's Graduation

Charlie and Diego survived an 11 hour car trip to see uncle Charlie graduate from Middlebury! It wasn't exactly planned that way - but then again I can't remember the last time anything went according to plan. The plan was for me to take Diego and for Charlie to stay home with Carlos. Once Charlie realized that I was taking Diego he was horrified. I felt so terrible on the way to the train station that I cancelled my ticket and decided to drive with both kids. Luckily uncle Seth drove all the way from Philadelphia to Middlebury and my mom packed plenty of supplies to feed Charlie's abyss of a stomach. They did great until about 6pm when we all were unraveling at the seams just wanted to get there and then....we got pulled over by a cop! speeding in a vermont town! Officer Barnes asked if we knew the village speed limit I kept wondering where the village was, but Seth was more diplomatic. Despite the delay we arrived - slightly beat-up - but right on time for the Friday football team dinner.

The weekend was great even though we didn't participate in many graduation events and those events we did attend were hampered by the chaos of chasing 4 young children around. Despite having 7 adults and 4 children at meals the table usually had no more than 3 people sitting at any one time and the conversation centered around if any one knew where the other people were and who had which children. Here are some shots from brunch when everyone ended up on the floor.

Even more hysterical than trying to have meals all together was trying to sleep in one bed with Charlie AND Diego! Diego was so tired he slept like a rock and was cozy as can be. Charlie, on the other hand, has some special sleep habits. At one point he was laying against the headboard, perpendicular to my head. At another point his head was off the bed and his feet across Diego and me at another point his head was down at my feet. And of course we were up at 6am. To make it even more special we stayed in a flea bag motel - yes, the kind with fake wood panelling. Luckily Nathan and Soogy were at the nice hotel so we mainly camped out with them. Here we are "cozy" in one bed at the Sugarhouse Motel...

Days can be quite full when you wake up at 6am. By noon we had stopped by the John Deere tractor store to stock up on tractor toys, had a first breakfast, then a brunch, then sat on the porch, then a leisurely walk to the river, then a tour of the farmers market to collect a picnic and back to the porch for more eating. We then all alternated in taking naps. Charlie passed out in the car so we opened the doors and sat on the porch drinking lemonade watching the car. Here is our picnic on the porch:

Sunday was equally fun as we made our way to the graduation. We moved the chairs to higher ground for a better view, drier ground, more shade and better access to the bbq. It was perfect! We found uncle Charlie as he processed up the hill tired from staying up all night. I guess it's a tradition to stay up all night before graduation and watch the sunrise together. I'm so tired with the little sleep I do get that the thought of an all-nighter makes me nauseous. Here are some pictures from graduation:

In my absence Carlos moved Diego's crib into Charlie's room. Carlos and I had plans to go out so the poor babysitter had to deal with the kids' first night together. And....well, it didn't go smoothly. We tried to put them to bed before leaving, but Diego had gotten used to sleeping in bed with over the weekend and so was pissed off. Charlie started crying because Diego was crying. He was banging on the door yelling "Diego is crying. Make him stop crying." The next morning Charlie told Carlos "Get that bed out of my room." That's not a successful start to being roommates....

Sleeping Habits

Carlos broke me of my habit of co-sleeping with Diego. That's right - my bag of sugar is finally spending the whole night in his own crib. The comical part is that baby Diego now inhabits the master bedroom. Carlos and I have started sleeping in the guest bedroom as the crib is set up in our room and I can't bare to be in the same room and not pick him up if he cries. I think the transition has been hardest for me - Diego cries a few minutes in the middle of the night but basically he sleeps through until morning. I'd like to put him in with Charlie but everytime I leave the room Charlie takes the opportunity to tip Diego over or torment him somehow.

We executed our first bribe this weekend. We told Charlie that we'd give him a present if he got his haircut. His hairdo had turned into a terrible looking mullet. We were in little Vietnam in the Eden Center which is full of bubble tea vendors and salons so after finishing our bubble tea we decided it was time for a haircut. Carlos tried to lure Charlie in by getting his own hair washed ($5). Charlie held Carlos' hand and told him not to be scared. Despite the bravery Charlie would have nothing to do with getting his own hair cut until we promised to get him a present. He sat so still and with a dramatic frown on his face the entire time. The funniest part was wandering the Vietnamese grocery store in search of a present. He diligently walked each aisle looking for a present that he wanted. Finally we gave up and went to Toys R Us to get him a present. I think the hair cut was well worth the $28 ($12 for the haircut and $16 for the present)!

Ever since he saw breakdancing in Atlanta Charlie has been doing his own interpretive breakdancing. He specializes in the no-hand downward dog which I tried and it is actually hard. It has been a daily activity since our return and one of my favorites.


My sweet Diego has started to crawl! He is unbelievably slow but he does crawl and has started to pull himself up. Despite not having a vocabulary he definitely expresses his desires - for instance if I open the door but don't go outside (he loves being outside) he does this adorable purring cry and lunges towards the door or if I try to feed him and he doesn't want it (unfortunately very often) he will literally swot the spoon away. He had his nine month appointment and weighed in at a little over 19 lbs. His head is in the 90th percentile but his weight is in the 25th percentile! big head, little body! The doctor recommended letting him feed himself so I've been letting him go at it with just about everything but mostly he still just likes breastmilk and bread.

Yesterday morning what seemed to be the entire fleet of Cars and Trucks and Things that Go showed up in front of our house to dig a seemingly useless hole and then quickly patch it up. Whatever it was it proved to be a great show for us. We ate our oatmeal out front in our pajamas and watched every type of truck come by. Here are Charlie, Brett and Diego watching the show.

Easter and Atlanta

wow - I can't believe that I haven't even posted about Easter yet! Work and work travel has been kicking my butt recently but I'm resolving not to let that happen anymore.

For Easter I took Charlie and Diego to my mom's house where we had an amazing Easter Egg hunt. Armed with mini-shovels and kid gardening gloves Charlie and his cousins dug in the front yard while the Easter Bunny planted eggs around the backyard. The shovels proved to be lots of fun, but nearly lethal beheading tools. When the kids were released on the backyard it was hysterical. Wallis only wanted the purple eggs so kept giving away the others and Charlie was mainly interested in taking dissassembling the eggs rather than collecting them. In the end they ended up with easter baskets full of fun treats. Charlie was very good about not eating the goodies. He unwrapped the coin chocolates but then threw the chocolate away!

We also went to see Germantown Academy and my dad's prized new track. The fields are gorgeous and made me realize that no place around here has similar grounds. Our neighborhood school is sweet but there is no grass let alone fields!!

Here are a couple of Charlie-isms that I didn't want to forget. The other day Charlie was arguing with Carlos about whether his tricycle was indeed a tricycle or a bicycle. Charlie insisted it was a bicycle and after much back and forth he became exasperated with Carlos and told him "Dad, in ENGLISH it is called a bicycle!" He won that argument. Another classic was when we went to the store and Carlos got a sample of a chocolate cake. Charlie asked what it was and Carlos said it was something yucky in hopes of dissuading him from wanting to taste it. As soon as Carlos licked the spoon clean Charlie asked "You ate all the poo Dad?" Well that's one way to dissuade him from chocolate...

Carlos told me that the blog seems to only be about me traveling and Diego being sick. how sad! And well....here is another similar entry! I had my big work trip last week - hopefully it was the longest and last of its kind for awhile. It was basically from Thursday to Thursday but I came home for 36 hours over the weekend. Sunday afternoon seemed to be the hardest as Carlos had to deal with both babies and yet again Diego was running a high fever and Charlie decided it was a good idea to poo on the floor. Back in Atlanta I had eaten something bad and couldn't eat anything without it going straight through me. After 4 days of stomach issues I was about to hit my 10th grade weight. Lots of fun in both locations! And poor Sandra suffered too as Carlos had her stay until 10pm one night.

But we made up for all the madness with a GREAT weekend in Atlanta to celebrate Coke turning 125 years old. Carlos and the boys came on Thursday after my week long meeting and we all stayed through Sunday. I realized it was our first mini-family vacation and it inspired me to take more! We had a hotel with a kitchen and pull-out sofa bed for Charlie which was perfect though it would have been even better if we had an in-room monitor so that we could escape to the hotel restaurant. On Friday we visited the World of Coke where he refused to go near the polar bear. In the afternoon we walked around little five points eating tacos, listening to music and somehow letting Charlie have his first popsicle. I picked out 'hibiscus mint' from the gourmet popsicle street vendor assuming Charlie wouldn't like it but the result was him not letting me have any of it. 1/3 of it ended up on his shirt and a 1/3 of it on the ground because he kept trying to take the stick out of the top so I'm guessing he didn't actually consume much of it.

On Saturday we went to the Coke 125th anniversary celebration where Charlie got fake tattoos, played with bubbles, got face paint and insisted on going back to the World of Coke to get slightly closer to the polar bear. We got to see part of the concert including K'naan singing my all time favorite world cup theme song. He was way more exciting than hearing Ryan Seacrest talk about his hair. Also exciting was the spontaneous breakdancing that happened next to us during K'naan. We actually went back to the World of Coke yet again in hopes that Charlie would take a picture with the Polar Bear and in fact he got close but then fear struck as he determined the polar bear was likely to eat him.