Blue Ribbons

Charlie started Pre-k 4!  Here he is on his first day of school! 

Despite being travelled-out we drove south to Charlottesville and then north to Cleveland over Labor Day, logging 18 hours in the car.  Despite seeing the inside of the Tank a lot we had a great time.  We were in Charlottesville for Meyer's wedding which was beautiful.  It was at a vineyard with gorgeous mountain views and a donut food truck for the dessert!  Around midnight we got back in the car and headed home to relieve poor Sandra who agreed to stay until 3am.  In the morning we packed up the car and left for Cleveland for the Labor Day Olympics.  Sadly we missed the greased up watermelon in the pool event (my all time favorite) but we did make it for the field events on Sunday.  Charlie was beyond excited for the big races and woke up Abuelo early to get a warm-up course going.  I was very proud of our family performance - tios Nathan and Seth made it to the tennis tournament final (sadly they lost), big tio Charlie won the around the backstop race and little Charlie won both the kids foot race and the three-legged race and Carlos won the mixed-up doubles tennis.  We didn't fair very well in the pond fishing competition, but our vegetable sculpture was pretty cute.  My dad must have infected Charlie with a track bug because he constantly wants to run races.  The whole weekend he would drag any willing body (usually his cousins, my dad or tios Charlie and Seth) to the start line.  The cutest thing about the kids race was that all the kids stopped at the string designating the finish line - they ran as fast as they could and then stopped abruptly so as not to disturb the string.   

The kids lining up for the big race

Charlie won!  Diego came in last...

Diego and I try the 3-legged race but lose to Charlie and Charlie

Charlie and I try the 3-legged race....

With ribbons...

vegetable sculpture contest - ours was The Three Muska-Tillos (tomatillos decorated as the 3 cousins)




We were the only ones NOT to catch a fish....

 


 

on my grandparents pond in a very old canoe



Charlie has become a tough negotiator these days.  He finds flaws in our reasoning or escalates the negotiation.  Last week when he wasn't sharing a new toy with Diego we told him we were going to return the toy to the store to which he responded "you can't return it after I opened it and played with it."  On the car ride home I said that he could use the iphone only if he stopped complaining and waited for Diego to go to sleep.  He didn't like that so he told me "if you don't let me use the iphone now I'm going to go outside (of the house) without a grown-up."  using my own negotiating tactics against me?  what kindof terrorist is he?!

Diego is still my little angel.  He is talking more and couldn't have a brighter smile.  That said we've had a few sleepless nights with him as we took away his pacifier last week.  He is doing okay overall but he'll wake up in the night and have a hard time going back to sleep.  I've spent a lot of early mornings inside his crib with him.  It's a small space and I may be over the weight limit but I'm too tired to try anything else.