Last Day of School/First Mandatory Playdate

Charlie finished pre-k 4 last week!!  Here he is with his little crew on the last day

Diego had a "mandatory playdate" for school during which time the teachers walked around with clipboards taking notes as the kids played. It felt a bit bizarre and extreme given that he is only two years old....Here he is hard at work:



I had to travel for work last week too and it seemed like everything imaginable went wrong. It was a bad sign that by the time my plane was taking off at 6:30am I had already gotten concerning calls from Carlos.  Despite getting up crazy early to nurse her and pump so that Carlos would have a fresh bottle of milk, she was crying uncontrollably by 6am.  At 6pm I got a text from Carlos wondering how long he should wait for the swimming coach....hmmm - technically a really long time given that he doesn't have swimming on Tuesdays!  He has swimming on friday....  That night Sandra spent 1.5 hrs trying to get sofia to sleep; when sofie woke up at night she woke charlie up who couldn't go back to sleep.  In the morning he must have looked so out of it that the nurse sent him home from school.  He ended up staying home with a crazy fever.  good times! Luckily the next night my mom came down for reinforcement.  I tried to tell Carlos that he should appreciate me more, but that didn't go over well :).

Last weekend we enjoyed the DC Truck Touch and two fun picnics - one slightly more well endowed.  The California State picnic had fun food and activities. Charlie and Carlos tried the three legged race -- clearly they need more labor day olympics practice.  The water balloons were more of a success until Carlos convinced Diego to throw a water balloon at my butt while I was wearing white pants! Great, thanks.  On Sunday we had a picnic with the SAISers.  It only took 2 months to plan, but well worth the wait.  Mark made homemade bread and took care of my kids (and all the other kids on the playground)!  what a treat.

Weddings have become mini-vacations for us.  This past weekend we went to a fun (and amazing) wedding on the Eastern Shore. Sofia came with us, but the boys stayed with Sandra.  My mom came too to help out with Sofie during the wedding.  It takes a village!  Ayesha and Premal are a super cute couple and the wedding/weather was beautiful.  A flash mob dance was planned for friday night so Charlie and Diego helped me practice the moves.  Despite their best efforts I still didn't get the dance right!  Check them out practicing:

at a crab shack in oxford

Almost Summer

We've been enjoying the nice weather before the gross, sticky summer weather hits. We are also enjoying life with three kids before it becomes life with three kids running in different directions...Sofie is insanely sweet and isn't mobile which seems to make life manageable right now.  I'm already dreading the day she starts to dislike the bjorn!  She still won't nap very long on her own, but at least she doesn't mind being put down now and rarely cries.  That said, she definitely prefers to be the center of attention.  She can hold her head up pretty well but hasn't started to grab for things yet.

This week I have to go to Cincinnati for work and I'm so worried about how she'll do for two nights.  Carlos thinks I'm worried about him, but I'm really not - I'm pretty sure he can survive 2 nights of no sleep.  I just have no idea what will happen to poor Sofie.  I made all the boys - including Carlos - practice giving her the bottle.  He thought I was joking, but I really wasn't....He has yet to change her diaper let alone feed her!!

This past week we went strawberry picking, had pool time and got to enjoy a fun visit with the Larson family.  The boys loved Alma and looked up to Xandr while Sofie basked in all the attention she got.  Charlie, Xandr and the dads went to an evening baseball game thinking - again incorrectly - that they'd only last a few innings, but they wandered in around 10pm because the boys wanted to stay until the end.  Charlie has entered a new phase of preferring to have playdates than hang out with us.  And Diego is in a new stubborn phase- I can't tell if it has to do with being the middle child or simply the fact that he is 2.  He is super sweet when he is alone with me, but once Charlie is around he digs his heels in about the weirdest things.

alma enjoying the treehouse

Here is Charlie playing piano. I'm very proud of him - not because I think he is great at it - but because of his focus.  He doesn't voluntarily practice, but when I ask him to practice he'll sit down and doesn't like to get back up until he can really play whatever song he is practicing.  Sadly he has already surpassed my music knowledge so I can barely help him....