Blizzard of 2010

More snow! This was called the Blizzard of 2010. Not only did it cause a panic at the grocery store (which I sent my husband to suffer through), but the media went nuts too - Fox 5 news had a special weather addition and dedicated the entire day's coverage to the snow. I think they interviewed every single person who walked by. Well here is my version of the weather coverage:

7pm Friday

Bedtime Friday:

Saturday Morning (I didn't even know which one was our car until Sunday afternoon)....

We stayed home on Saturday and let the snow pile up in front of the house. I ventured out on Saturday evening to a friend's birthday party in Dupont and it was magical. There were no cars on the road, but lots of people out walking around. Unfortunately getting there and back was a nightmare as the metro was barely running. I caught the last train back and it took an hour to get back to the hill.

Although we stayed indoors on Saturday, Charlie did observe the snow closely from the window...and flashed all the snowploughs that came by....

He also got an insanely bubbly bubble bath

Sunday we took Charlie to the Capitol to partake in the sledding. He reacted to the snow the same way he reacted to sand the first time: skeptical.

Commando

This week we've started letting Charlie run around commando. Yes, we've been freeing him of diapers and got him a little toilet to test out. It's been a pretty funny week as he says "pee-pee" and we all go running to the bathroom only for him to decide that he won't sit down. He repeats this about 15 times before finally peeing in his pants. He's made progress in terms of letting us know when he has to go, but the running back and forth to the bathroom with only 1 successful pee so far isn't a good sign. He got a bit of a reprieve from the bathroom runs though when his friend Ehrin spent two days with him while her day care was closed. They played together (though Charlie made sure she only got the small toys!), took naps at the same time and ate snacks together. I did notice that she is not very interested in his trains or trucks (of which I didn't realize how many we had until I was looking for alternative toys for her). It made me think about the nature vs. nurture. Ehrin's mom says she is already particular about her clothes! Charlie could care less what goes on him (which enables Sandra to somehow put clothes on him that I've packed away as being too small for him. I'll come downstairs and see him wearing high water pants and I just roll my eyes and pack them deeper in the closet).

On Monday Aunt Mary came for a visit and Charlie was beyond ecstatic. He screamed when she came in and did some sort of tribal dance to welcome her. She taught him how to put penne pasta on his fingers which makes eating them so much more enjoyable.

In addition to eating from his fingers, he also likes using spoons. He is indifferent to the size of the spoon or the size of the bite as seen in this video

The Goldbug book is old news now and his new favorite is Green Eggs and Ham. He calls it the "Ham" book. He has started to drag every book we own over to our reading spot so as to delay going to sleep as long as possible. It makes me wonder how long I'll be able to hold onto the 8pm bedtime....

The weather has been cold and lots more snow than I remember in past winters. Here is the sight from our bedroom window this morning.

Grandparents and Abuelos

I think Charlie is getting bored of us and wants to hang out with his grandparents more. He loves to talk to Abuela on the phone and on skype and last weekend Charlie was in heaven as both my mom and my dad stayed with us. Carlos and I were old news. He followed my mom around saying "grandma, grandma, grandma." He was skeptical of my dad at first and scooted carefully by him trying his best not to be noticed by the scary man. But he warmed up and my dad provided lots of entertainment because he and Carlos were employing lots of loud tools. The kitchen island was demolished and only partially rebuilt and the closet is torn up too. Here are some photos of the recent projects.

Charlie got to hang out with his buddies at brunch last weekend too. He was kindof a brut though as he was very territorial about Isaac's car. He didn't even fit in the car very well, but he still didn't want any of the other boys to even touch it. But they did all sit next to each other on the couch for a few photos. Luckily Jamie was taking pictures - I can't find the camera charger so I'm yet again without a camera....

Photos finally

Delinquent! Sorry! We were in California for the holidays and had a great time in (relatively) warm Carmel with Carlos' family. Charlie had a lot of firsts - he got to take his first boat ride - "butt" as he calls it. When we got on the boat he kept yelling "da butt, da butt, da butt!" I thought he was going to offend's Tali's family....The excitement wore off and he was more taken by the toy cars in the cabin - which was not fun for me as I could spend a whole 2 minutes down there before turning green. He also got to take his first hike at Point Lobos which he loved. He did most of the hiking himself although we needed to keep him on the path. It was beautiful and luckily we made it back before sunset. In addition we acted as tourists and rented a surrey for the first time in his and my life. We put him upfront as we pedalled our way along the Monterey bike path. It was so cute and he loved it. While we were tourists Carlos helped Tali build a fence.

He loved taking morning walks on the beach and watching the surfers. Sadly he loved when they fell down: "boom" he'd say happily and then wonder where they went. He loved spending time with this grandmother and learned the words 'abuela' and 'abuelo.' He likes talking to abuela on the phone though she has to do most of the talking at this point. His tia Veronika also took good care of him and gave him wonderful trains for Christmas.

He remains a terrible traveler. He would wake up early every morning and he knew we were sleeping in the bed next to him so he'd reach over and grab me: "mama, mama, mama." I was about to go crazy. I never want to sleep in the same room as him again!!

Guess where we are not?!

California! Our plane was due to take off on Sunday, but DC got the craziest snow storm since I’ve been here - over 2 feet of snow! It was beautiful but it stopped everything. We couldn’t venture more than a block from our house and there was no way our car was getting anywhere. Charlie and I have both been sick so with this crazy weather we haven't been out of the house (more than a block) in nearly 3 days now! Here are a few shots from Charlie’s first real snow. He didn’t seem to know what to make of it. He just stood there motionless. Then again I did have him dressed in 10 layers so he probably couldn’t move even if he wanted to…

The first flight that we could get on is for Tuesday at 10pm. We’ve been taking advantage of the time by doing more house work and eating all the food in the kitchen that I never thought we would ever actually eat. I think our freezer is officially void of frozen left overs and the cans on the shelves are quickly diminishing.

Merry Christmas!

First Date

Carlos gave Charlie a haircut and I'm not that happy about it. Charlie looks like a Beatle with short bangs. Surprisingly Charlie sat still on the bathroom countertop as Carlos used the kitchen scissors. His hair was getting in his eyes so I just wanted a little trim, but I'm not happy with the outcome. Here they are:

I think Charlie's temper is starting to show through. Carlos and I got in a fight about the hair and Carlos and Charlie got in a fight about Goldbug. Yep - Goldbug. Charlie pointed to a little green bug and exclaimed "Goldbug!" Carlos said that it wasn't goldbug and Charlie was devastated. He put his head in his arms and started crying. We usually skip that page now to avoid any more incidents.

I was in Atlanta this past week and so to make up for it we had lots of quality time this weekend. Charlie and I went to the Natural History Museum with Stephanie and her niece Stephie and then over to watch the ice skaters at the Sculpture garden. Then we joined a fabulous Bolivian feast at a friend's house and Sunday we joined a cookie decorating party. He really liked decorating the cookies but the outcome wasn't very appetizing! To go to the cookie party we actually fit another car seat in our tiny car! They looked so cute together - I felt like I was chaperoning a first date!

I forgot to tally words last week but I noticed that as new ones come in some others seem to disappear. He won't say 'quatro' anymore, but he has taken up: ojo, boca, teeth, manzana, socks, milk, soup & sopa. That makes 42. He says "Hi dada/mama" or "bye dada/mama" and he says "da ball" though I'm not sure he thinks of it as two words or just one. And for some crazy reason he is convinced that cows say "Baa" - no matter how many times I say "Moo," he says "Baa." No idea where he got his stubborn nature...

Charlie still loves trucks, but airplanes are a close second these days - especially after we saw President Obama's helicopter fly directly overhead and land at the White House. We went to see the national Christmas tree which is in front of the White House and were super disappointed to find it barricaded off and secret service standing gaurd. But then three huge identical helicopters flew overhead and Charlie went ballistic. "Airpa" (his version of airplane) "Airpa, Airpa" he screamed and his whole body shook with excitement. I thought Obama's would have been the middle one, but it was the last one. Soon afterwards the tree lit up and we were able to watch the trains going around the tree. He loved the trains.




Another favorite these days is saying "eew" to everything he finds gross - which includes every crumb, every spot on the floor, every misplaced thread...He says eew a lot - so much so that I didn't think much of it when he said "eew" when we were out walking this weekend. But he kept saying it and finally raised his arm up and screamed "EEEWWW" so I stopped and took a closer look. A bird had pooped on his sleeve! Lucky that he was grossed out and not tempted to touch it.

And finally his other favorite is finding Goldbug in the 'Cars and Trucks and Things that Go' book. On every page a 1 cm yellow bug is hidden somewhere and Charlie loves to find him. Here is a video of him finding Goldbug with Carlos.

Carlos is building some shelves on the 3rd floor and in classic Carlos style the entire room is turned upside-down and full of sawdust. And it's only shelves!! The really annoying part is that it is my office! So I'm sitting in a bed of sawdust. What a joke. Here is a shot of my office space these days...

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