Sofia Crawls....

Sofia started crawling recently, but she really just wants to walk...and walk....and walk...and walk!  Her crawling is hysterically inefficient.  She scurries along laboriously, but doesn't go very fast or far.  That said, if I turn my head for a second she seems to scamper out of view and find something she shouldn't.  The walking thing is also funny and back breaking.  She desperately wants to walk - actually run - and will often refuse to sit or even stand so I  hunch over her so she can walk and I can catch her every few steps.  It makes cooking dinner or playing with Charlie and Diego totally impossible.  Here she is heading down the hallway while her brothers fight for her attention....

We had a crazy past week during which we only had 1.5 days of school. I should have taken a picture of our house at the beginning of the week compared to the end of the week.  There was MLK day and then two snow days and a half day dismissal.  The kids were very industrious at home - they used every pillow and blanket in the house to build forts that spanned various rooms.  They built about 5 lego sets, dressed up as every superhero imaginable, played every game on hand and played "store" endlessly.  "Store" entails Charlie and Diego each having a store and then going shopping at the other's store with their wads of fake money.

One of many forts around the house - complete with tunnels and all!

 

braving the polar vortex to go biking

Charlie is getting better at skating! He is actually upright!

I tried to take all three of them out sledding one afternoon and I'm really glad no one I knew saw me.  It was a total disaster.  It felt about 7 degrees outside so it literally took me 45 minutes to get the hundreds of layers on three children.  It took another 15 minutes to get Sofia, with her multiple layers, to fit into the ergo.  The hill at Garfield park nearby should be perfect for sledding, but it's actually totally impossible.  One run shoots the kids straight into the street; the second run ensures they hit a fence and the third run is so far from the stairs that it takes forever to get set-up.  There is a barricade at the top so there is no way to get ready before heading down which meant that I had to hold the sled while charlie climbed on.  Sounds okay except that I'm on the other side of the barricade with a baby strapped to me so I was basically lying down on the sidewalk on top of Sofia with my arms stretched under the wall while Charlie slipped and squirmed his way onto the sled.  At least half the time he'd only get half on before he slipped off and I lost the sled.  Diego refused to participate in the madness so he was probably the best off of all of us.  Despite the fact that I saw the outing as sheer pain, Charlie enjoyed it so much that he was devastated when I decided I couldn't be prostrate on the sidewalk with commuters stepping over me while Sofia looked on helplessly.

Diego has been really sweet recently and comical.  The other day he woke me up by saying "mom, it's 7, 8 past 1 so it's time to get up."  "really, Diego, 7, 8 past 1?" "yes."  I've been feeling badly about focusing only on sports and no art classes so at night I draw them each a picture for them to color in while I read to them.  The other day Diego insisted that he was doing a great job, but wondered I could find him a "coloring-in class."  He is especially fond of purple and colors with it so much that we've run out of ink a few times.  He hasn't quite got the 'ink' thing yet so at first he'd say "I think this pen is running out of gas."  Charlie corrected him so he now says "I think this pen is running out of gink."  It makes perfect sense to me and I hope he doesn't stop saying it.

Diego "chefing" with me

Diego trying to teach Sofia how to swing

This weekend we had a fun SAIS wedding.  Sarah Rotman got married at a church on the Hill and the reception included an incredible piano performance by her father.  In typical Carlos fashion, he decided that before the wedding he REALLY needed to install a dimmer light so below is a picture of him in a suit and a headlamp prior to heading to the church.  I was a sorry sight as I got the big vein on my left leg removed (thanks to sofia) the day before.  I had to hide three layers of bandages under a very long dress that Carlos kept stepping on!  Nevertheless we had a great time and always nice to catch up with the SAIS team.

2014

Not much has happened since our trip so I thought I'd take stock on where the kids are as they start 2014.

Charlie is becoming a boy, boy, but is still very sweet. He loves everything related to sports, though he still mainly likes to just play soccer, swimming, baseball and kickball.  He likes me to read him the sports pages in the newspaper and would be happy to go see a game of anything.  He finally seems to like playing with boys more than girls.  A little too much for my taste....There seems to be a lot of wrestling and battling these days.  He loves lego and is currently scheming to make an entire lego city.  We've literally spent whole days building various lego sets.  He is diligent and will practice piano or practice writing, but not always happily.  I signed him up for skating lessons with a friend of his who is much better on ice skates (in fact Charlie doesn't know how to skate at all) but he dutifully did the lesson; it was tough to watch so I can't imagine how hard it was for him. He fell on his butt so many times and the teacher's tough love attitude meant she never once helped him up.  He got up every time and kept going and only when I met him on the side after the class did the tears start flowing.  That's Charlie.  He takes very good care of his brother and sister.  They fight, but in general, Charlie looks out for Diego.  My favorite thing now is watching him learn to read - it is such a fun process to witness.  He can read Frog and Toad stories by himself now and we promised him any lego set he can dream up when he reads a whole Jack and Annie Magic Tree House chapter book by himself.

Charlie organizing our bathroom closet

Diego - my little peanut - can be as cute and sweet as ever....when he chooses to be.  He can be so charming that it melts my heart - like when he tells me that we are "chefing" when we make banana bread together; or when he says "mommy, I love you so much...will you come play with me?" or when he gives me the biggest, tightest hugs when we say goodnight. When he hears Sofia wake up he runs into her room and sits next to her crib talking to her.  But often he is trying to find his own space in the family which ends up with him in tears or us frustrated.  He waits patiently while we drag him along to Charlie's classes and contentedly plays by himself often.  He adores Sofia, but can be rough with her.  He won't jump into activities so getting him to join a class without Charlie is nearly impossible.  Unlike Charlie, he doesn't love school and would rather stay home playing with his toys.  He seems to have stopped crying a lot at drop-off, but he still gets sad and tries to hold it inside.  He puts his head down and his whole body seems to whimper - it hurts my heart to see.  We tried to get the boys one big bed to share and kept a little mattress under the bed for guests.....but Diego insists on sleeping in the little bed on the floor.  It drives me nuts.  I hate the idea of him putting himself in the little bed.  I suppose we'll be getting rid of the big and little bed and investing in bunk beds.

Sofia is proving to have quite a personality.  She has just started crawling and wants badly to walk, but is tentative.  I had thought she'd be walking by 10 months, but may need to revise that guess.  She can pull herself up and most mornings I find her standing in her crib waiting for me.  When she wants to stand (which is often) there is NOTHING you can do to get her to sit.  She stays stiff as a board and won't bend at the waist.  It's almost comical.  If I absolutely have to put her down when she is in a standing mood I need to lie her down because she will not bend to sit down.  When she doesn't get what she wants or if I take something away from her she looks right at me, clenches her fist and screams at me.  It's kindof funny and kindof scary.  She is also very charming - she smiles, waves hi and bye and has a flexing party trick.  With little prompting she'll put her fists over her head and flex - sometimes so much so that she turns red.  She loves to nurse and would much prefer to sleep next to me.  She can easily sleep from 7pm-7am, but sometimes chooses not to!

The house - Carlos' baby - is, as always, under construction.  My office is still being converted to an office/guest suite.  We've yet to finish the shelves in the living room and now Carlos is dreaming of better sound proofing for the basement when the tenants move out....

where my desk SHOULD be....

the guest bathroom

the deck....someday....

Holiday Adventures

We just arrived home from a 13 day adventure where we all, or some contingent of us, visited San Francisco, Disneyland, Santa Barbara, Broomfield, CO, Winter Park, CO and Boulder, CO.  That is a lot of packing and unpacking for a family of 5!  The San Francisco weather was insanely nice so the boys got to go sailing on the Bay, played on the beach and enjoyed the really awesome playgrounds in SF.  Sofia and I enjoyed taking long (and hilly) walks and visiting old friends.  

Part of the adventure was fitting 8 people into a one bedroom apartment before helping tia Veronika move into her beautiful new house in San Francisco, which closed on Christmas Eve.  The move on Christmas Eve made for a memorable, but sparse Christmas.  We got a Christmas tree from Whole Foods 20 minutes before closing time for $20.  We rummaged up some lights and told the boys that at least this way Santa would know to come in.  We hadn't thought to buy food while at Whole Foods so Christmas eve dinner and Christmas brunch consisted of whatever snacks we could find - mainly almonds and biscoff cookies!  

The boys' big Christmas present was a trip to Disneyland with tia Veronika and Abuela.  They drove 7 hours down to Anaheim and braved the crowds during one of the busiest times of the year.  It sounds horrific to me, so the boys are very lucky to have family willing to go!  Despite the long drive and long lines, the boys had so much fun and are still talking about it.  Unfortunately, Diego was too short for many of the rides so I think another trip may be in our future....

With the boys gone, Carlos went to work ripping out wall-to-wall carpets, painting walls and knocking out an unsightly shower in Veronika's house.  I also left town to go see a highschool friend in Santa Barbara.  It was so nice to see her, see Santa Barbara and eat lots of delicious food at her mom's house.  Any time I go back to SB I start plotting how to move back....Especially when we are welcomed back to DC with freezing cold and snow.   

Here is what Carlos did while I enjoyed 80 degree weather in Santa Barbara....

From San Francisco we went to Colorado to spend New Year's with the Andersons.  The kids all got along great and slept in bunk beds in one room.  It was very cute.  Carlos was excited to go skiing, but when he got to the mountain there were no skis left to rent!  When he asked what was left to rent they told him only "ice skates." Oh well!  Luckily the kids had better luck the next day and took a ski class with Issac and Caitlin.  Charlie enjoyed it so much that he insisted on skiing with Carlos (who by then was able to get skis) for another 3 hours.  Diego - surprisingly - didn't cry when we put him in ski school, but, with all the layers, wasn't able to make it to the bathroom in time and ended up peeing his pants!  Luckily he was wearing about 18 layers so one came off and he was happy to play more in the snow.  

Celebrating New Years (in some distant time zone :))

From there were went to see uncle Buddy in Boulder.  It is always nice to go there because Buddy is the most enjoy-the-present person I know.  And he makes some crazy good food!  We were greeted by the most amazing home-made bread.  

Despite leaving in plenty of time and getting to the airport a full 2 hours early (unheard of for us), we almost missed the flight.  Frontier airlines - which I will NEVER fly on again (like Spirit)- could not check us in because there were two Carlos Vazquez.  Carlos had gone to return the car and his cell phone was dead.  I waited in line for 45 minutes and then sat at the counter for another hour with all our bags, all carry-on bags and three children.  By the time I got our boarding passes I had 18 minutes to get through security and get to the gate.  I screamed "RUN!!!" to the kids and we took off running as fast as we could (as fast as I could with three children, a car seat, a trunky, and 2 more carry-on bags!!).  It must have been a pretty funny sight.   Luckily someone helped us through security and we made it just in time.  To add insult to injury, Frontier put us in four different rows so we had to negotiate to at least have three together.  

We told the boys that Santa had also stopped by DC so they got to enjoy a few more gifts when they woke up Friday morning.  Our house is getting overrun with legos - like this one that Santa brought for Charlie to make: