Skater or Mullet?

I spent all last week in Florida visiting orange groves and talking to migrant workers. The subject was interesting, but the location was painful. I ate the Southwest salad at McDonalds almost everyday for lunch and then moved onto the Southwest Explosion salad for dinner at Chilis every night. I survived 5 Hampton Inn breakfasts only by going to McDonalds for coffee every morning. I needed a full detox by Friday. I did get to spend one evening in Downtown Disney which equally bizarre. I know Charlie and Diego will love theme parks at some point, but it just seems like the biggest pain. I've surveyed various parents about going to Disney World and there seems to be two types - the ones that dread the idea and the ones that have already gone even though their 3 year olds won't remember it. A favorite response was "I'm going to wait until they won't stop demanding to go, and then I'll wait one more year."

Charlie and Diego seemed to do just fine with out me - in fact, without us! Carlos was gone through Tuesday night so my dad stayed over. This weekend we had fun at Charlie's school gala and with my mom and aunt Mary visiting. I ended up bidding on and getting one of Charlie's class artwork. I was hoping to bid on more, but everything either quickly got out of my price range or I felt too badly to bid against a friend. I'm clearly not very cut-throat.

Sandra is in Nicaragua with her church so I am taking a few days off and I'm having so much fun with Diego. Here we are chasing tractors on the mall. His vocabulary is still limited, but my favorite word is "matzzzz" for mas/more.

Charlie's school is doing a session on cameras so I've been spending time with the class taking pictures. It's amazing how most of the three/four year olds are great at using digital cameras. There are still a few kids who insist on putting their fingers over the lens and actually looking through the viewfinder. The funniest thing is that here is what most of the photos looked like - they took pictures of each other taking pictures!

Here is my big question - do I cut Charlie's hair? I love the skater look, but maybe it's turning into a mullet. thoughts?

A Really Delayed Post

The last few weeks have confirmed for me that I would have a really, really, really hard time going back to office life. I had all day meetings downtown last week starting at 8am and work events in the evening. I guess that is a normal work schedule, but I was depressed by the end of the week. I didn't get to take Charlie to school, I didn't get to pick him up, I didn't get to put them to bed, I didn't get to exercise and I ate gross food all week. It will be a bad day when I have to go back to an office setting full-time.

This weekend we went to visit my college friend in Richmond. They have a 2.5 year old and some how they dealt with us staying over with our 2 monsters as well. The boys played so hard until they nearly collapsed around 10pm and we stayed up talking until it was even too late for me. I was so paranoid that Charlie would pee in the bed that when I went to sleep I picked him up, held him over the toilet and turned on the faucet. He was fast asleep, but managed to go pee and straight back to bed. Luckily everything was dry the next morning. Here are the kids at Charlie's classmate's birthday party. It was a raucous party - they had a DJ literally blaring music. There was also a bouncey house, face painting and a crazy spread of southern food. Charlie got his face painted but then continued to play so hard that by the end of the party he had sweat the paint off and looked like a crazy man.

The backyard is still under construction....I'm hoping that it'll be usable this summer. It is still a pile of dirt, but Carlos promises that I can have an easter egg hunt in less than a month. hmmm. I suppose there are lots of good hiding places under the wood scraps and construction debris....