Cleveland

Diego, Charlie, big Charlie and I drove to Cleveland for my grandparents' 68th wedding anniversary last weekend. The trip did not start out very smoothly. 30 minutes after packing up the car and the two kids we were back at the house and totally unravelled. We went to pick up uncle Charlie at the train station and then get on the road after stopping to get some food. Well....I was on the edge anyways after not sleeping much all week, I had just come back from spending all afternoon getting shots for our trip, Charlie missed his nap and Diego hates being in the car so he was screaming. As big Charlie went in for pizza a metermaid tried to give me a ticket while I was in the car and that was my limit. I blew up at her and she yelled at me (I'm guessing she probably had a similar crappy day). A nearby cop came over to calm us down...But by then both kids were crying. So 30 minutes and two screaming babies later we went back home to re-group.

Luckily the rest of the trip was not very eventful. We arrived in Cleveland around 2am and Charlie, Diego and I passed out together in one bed. It worked out well except that Diego was up at 6am as always. Charlie on the other hand slept in until 9:30!! That's a first!

The party was wonderful - especially because when we walked in the door Carlos walked towards us! He didn't think he'd be able to make it, but surprised us by showing up in this random suburb of Cleveland. It was a very special event - there were loads of people in a beautiful setting. Diego seemed to bring a lot of joy to people. One woman in particular wouldn't let go of him. It took me a while to realize that she has memory problems which seemed to make her even more pleased with Diego - he was new to her every time she passed by. It was really sweet.

We had fun playing with the cousins and going to the pool before getting back in the car for 7 hours. The pool was great until Charlie slipped off a raft and went under water. It was confusing but I turned around and Charlie was being propped up by Carlos from underwater and the raft was between Carlos and Charlie. Charlie was bobbing up and down so I got scared and jumped in after him too. Charlie was scared but fine and we learned 2 obvious and important lessons: 1) don't swim beyond the shallow end and 2) don't jump in too quickly. I jumped in and sunk so I had to hold Charlie from underwater too. I should have climbed into the water and swam to him.