Getting Ready for Halloween

We had a very full and spooky weekend, which makes me slightly less sad about missing my favorite holiday due to a work trip next week.  We decorated the front yard, carved pumpkins early and Charlie and Carlos did a race in the cemetery.  Charlie was super excited about his race which wound around a block of graves while music thumped and creepy costumes surrounded us.  It was pretty comical, but he loved it and Diego says he is building up enough courage to do it next year.  It took Diego about an hour to agree to go talk to this woman on stilts....Can't say I blame him...I was so proud of Charlie for running the whole way and he was so pleased with himself for "beating" his father.


Not surprisingly Charlie and Cici settled on the same pumpkin design, while Diego requested Batman.  I am hoping that by next year Charlie should be able to mostly carve by himself. Both Charlie and Diego loved the activity which, of course, makes me very happy.

Sunday afternoon we went to see the Georgetown women's soccer team play. I'm trying to make sure the boys realize girls can kick butt on the field too.  It was super fun and there is a turf field next door where we played during half-time.  But it is tough to compete with the Nats stadium experience.  After the game Charlie expressed general approval, but also general disappointment that there were no hot dogs or cotton candy.

Last week I went on a field trip with Diego's class.  It was the first time I got to see him interact with his friends.  He seems to really enjoy them - especially Noah (who looks oddly similar to him), Aubrey (whose parents are deaf) and Rileigh (whose parents have raised 4 biological and 12 other kids - but who is counting!).  Nevertheless, as soon as I left after the field trip Diego started crying again.  It's so sad.  The teacher said he is usually fine after a few minutes in school, but recess is also tough.  I guess he gets to see Charlie for 10 minutes and then Charlie has to go back inside and Diego gets sad.

To go along with my parental outsourcing theme I have started making Charlie read to Sofia.  He doesn't appreciate how squirmy she is, but I think it's good for both of them.

Around the Bases!

We took the kids to hear salsa music at the Kennedy Center on Friday.  Diego was the most willing to get on the dance floor  while Charlie and Cici could only be convinced to stand on the dance floor.  I sure hope that changes. Charlie and Diego need to learn to salsa before it is too late and their hips move like gringos!

I took the kids to Philly this weekend to escape the rain.  All the museums here are closed due to the shutdown (as are playgrounds!) so it makes rainy days pretty tough!  The weather turned out to be great there so between grandma's toys and the Germantown Academy fields the kids had so much fun.  We visited my mom's store (http://curiophiladelphia.com) - which looks awesome - and Charlie and Diego love to use the typewriters she has on display.  I guess there is immediate gratification that comes with seeing the letters appear on a real piece of paper.  Nevertheless, they seem more adept at using the ipad...

We watched Germantown Academy's football game and then rushed the field to play kickball.  We played kickball, soccer, tennis, baseball, catch and ran around the track.  It was so awesome to have so many great facilities for them  to use.  It was especially fun to see them run the bases - it is a really long way around for their little legs!! Of course they always get a home run so after about 10 home runs they were ready to move on to the next sport.

Charlie has a little race this coming weekend so I wanted him to run a 1/4 mile to be familiar with the distance.  He ran twice around the track, but I only clocked it in once at 2:09.  Not bad.  My main goal is that he doesn't stop, but we'll see if he can improve that timing during the race.

Diego ran half way around and when I ran to cheer him on he fell on the ground and started crying.  I can almost make sense of that, but not quite.  One more Diego mystery.  Despite his recent attitude, Diego says some pretty amusing things these days.  There is a kid named Tate at school and Diego will only call him "Tape" despite Charlie's best efforts to reform him.  And when Carlos asked Diego how much he loved him, Diego responded "about 30 miles."  We told him that if he doesn't cry for a whole week at school, we will take him to Chuck E Cheese - so now he says "I'm not going to cry so we can go to cheddar cheese."

Sofia is a total joy.  She doesn't nap very well during the day, but has been sleeping pretty well at night.  She can sleep from 7pm to 6am if she wants to.  I'm trying to get her sleeping through the night before my upcoming work trip.  I'm super worried about being gone for a full week.  I just know she'll be out of sorts and wake up a lot and I'm paranoid about her not wanting to nurse when I get home.

  

Dreadful Drop-off

My prize:

Last weekend I got crazy sick so Carlos took the boys and Cici apple picking.  They had so much fun without me!!  Carlos said that they didn't once fight or cry the entire day.

School is proving a bit tricky with Diego.  He screams at the top of his lungs and clings onto us for dear life everyday at drop-off.  After two minutes in the classroom he is totally fine.  It's been about a month and things aren't getting any easier at drop-off.  In fact, Diego has become a bit tricky all around.  Sometimes he is still my charming, loving, cuddly Diego, but other times he is whiny and obstinate beyond belief.

We've tried everything to try to deal with drop-off - leaving him on the playground, going early to play and make drop-off fun, Sandra does drop-off, going late, playdates with classmates...but nothing works.  He has only had 2 good drop-off days - the first day of school and then some random, glorious day when he was happy and sweet the WHOLE day.  I was so proud of him that day that I let him decide how to celebrate in the evening.  He wanted an ice cream from Silver Spork market and then to go to kids night (kids eat some gross food for free and get to sit in mini-Adirondack chairs while watching some terrible movie).  I was happy to oblige because he was so good that even his teacher emailed to say that Diego had "an AMAZING day."  I thought we had turned a corner and that my sweet Diego was back. But the very next morning he went back to crying.  Seeing him that day meant that this crying and behaviour is a choice he is making.  He knows that he doesn't have cry; he knows he'll be fine; he knows how to be my bag of sugar.

Charlie, on the other hand, is super sweet and well behaved these days.  He loves school, Cici is still his very best friend and he can play kickball for 3 hours straight (literally).  He loves kickball, baseball and soccer (probably in that order).  Kickball is the "easiest" for the kids to organize on their own, but that said, it is hysterical watching them try to organize and play a game on their own.  It takes about 20 minutes to agree where the bases should be, another 20 to agree on the teams and who will be pitcher and then comes the "how do you want the ball? fast and on the ground or slow and bumpy" negotiation.

He has taken to sounding words out and labeling things around the house.  I don't have the heart to tell him the spelling isn't quite right....