The Boys Were Away

Carlos and Charlie were away for over a week to visit Abuela in Reno. It was a big adventure and supposedly Charlie did great on the airplane rides. I packed him presents, DVDs and lots of snacks, but mostly he just wanted to play with a cup of water. Go figure. He had so much fun at Abuela's house that he didn't seem to miss me at all and certainly had no interest in talking to me on the phone. Whenever I called and asked to talk to him he would either say no or give me one or two words before darting off to play. Carlos took advantage of me being 3,000 miles away to give him a less than flattering haircut. I don't even know how to describe it, but it looks kindof like a wig and the curls are gone. I'm still mourning the loss of the curls.

Although they didn't miss me, I did miss them....eventually!! It was nice to have some time alone with Diego and have a quiet house! Diego is so portable that I took advantage of the time to go to Philly and New York to see family and friends. We celebrated my mom's birthday in Philly and then Wallis' birthday in New York.

Diego continues to be my little bag of sugar. He loves to sit up now, smiles all the time and is quite intrigued by his hands. Sometimes his eyes go cross-eyed as he tries to focus on his hand which he brings 1 inch in front of his face. He also loves to eat his fist and then has a crazy expression as though he wonders who just tried to gag him. Fortunately he started to put himself on a schedule because his mother was too delinquent to do so. We are still not sure what color his eyes will be as they are still a steel blue color. It's hard to believe that with two brown eyed parents he would have anything but brown eyes, but I guess we'll see. I've read that they can change up to 9 months.

Unrequited Love

Sadly Charlie is already learning tough lessons about love. At 2 years old he has fallen madly in love with a 20 month old girl name Anya who does not seem to love him back with the same intensity. Clearly at 20 months, she just isn't mature enough to appreciate true love. He talks about Anya, day dreams about her and when he goes to school he insists on holding her hand at all times. Anya isn't the most verbal yet, but you'll occasionally hear her yelp as she tries to escape Charlie's grasp. But Charlie is not taking the rejection lying down. He follows her around and when she pushes him away...well, he takes her toy so she can fully focus on him. I even caught him pulling her by the leg when she tried to scurry up the slide away from him. Here is the young couple at playschool.

Charlie is not only passing around kisses, but also his cold. He gave Diego his most recent cold and poor Diego ended up with an ear infection. My sweet bag of sugar Diego was so sad and looked at me with these eyes which said 'mom, why did you let this happen to me?' I felt terrible. He doesn't like the medicine much, but seems to be doing better.

Last week we got to see some of our favorite families for a sushi making happy birthday party and the babies posed for some group photos.

Over the weekend we were in Philly and Charlie had a fun adventure with grandma and tia Mary riding the train into town and talking to the 'captain.' I guess the conductor gave Charlie lots of tickets to hold and gave him some candy. Luckily he relinquished the candy to aunt Mary and then had fun saying 'don't tell mommy!' I'm not sure where he got that, but it's not a good sign if he already likes to hide things from me!

Halloween!

Charlie was in full character for Halloween! Not only did he have a great home-made costume from my mom, he also lived up to his monster of all monsters character - Max from Where the Wild Things Are! After a fruitless search online for white fleece footed pajamas my mom made him the perfect Max outfit. Sadly it took me more time to look online than it did for her to find fleece, make it and bring it down. It sucks not being talented!

The weekend was so full of festivities that on Monday Charlie ran around the house yelling "I want to go to a party!!" On Friday we went to 'Hilloween' at Eastern Market where there were hundreds of kids in costumes. Charlie loved seeing the other costumes - in particular he screamed and waved at every Elmo he saw. He went on a hayride - or a 'caballo truck' as he called it in his urban spanglish. Saturday was the Rally for Sanity and we had a post-rally party. It reminded me of inauguration with people crowding the streets and the festive atmosphere. It was so crowded that we stayed on the periphery and as a result couldn't hear much. Charlie liked his ride and seeing some of the absurd outfits.

On Halloween we headed to East Capitol after Charlie practiced saying trick-or-treat all weekend. Of course he clammed up when it came time to say it. He did however gladly accept candy. He wasn't taken by the Secret Service or the Obama girls but he was obsessed by a big panda. A week later he still talks about the Panda.

Not only was he a cute Max but he played the part. After trick-or-treating we went to a friend's birthday party and an exhausted Max threw a temper tantrum and spilled a glass of water all over the birthday girl's dinner....

Diego slept through most of the festivities and indulged us as we tried on various costumes.

Leaf Peepers

This weekend we went to see my brother Charlie play football for Middlebury up in Vermont. It was our first trip as a family of four and we managed to all stay in a single hotel room. Of course Charlie got his own bed and Diego, Carlos and I crammed in the other bed because Charlie is a tornado in his sleep. No one can sleep near him and come out unscathed. We had a great time seeing uncle Charlie and my whole family and the weather was amazing. I guess it's high season in Vermont because people actually go 'leaf peeping.' I don't know exactly what that means, but I guess other people do because the flights to Burlington were all full.

Charlie had a tough time getting the concept of an uncle with the same name and so kept insisting that Uncle Seth, who was sitting next to him, was on the field. But after rushing the field after the big win and putting on his helmet Charlie seemed to take to big Charlie. Admittedly he was a little disappointed that it was just a football game and not a marching band. He kept waiting for the 'marching men' to come out. I wonder if this means he is going to be the type to join the school band....

Charlie also enjoyed running the hallways with cousin Wallis. And although he liked the concept of the airplane he was a monster once he had to take his seat. So much so that Carlos declared he no longer wanted a large family! Oh no! I've been trying to shelter him from kid duty this week in hopes he'll change his mind.

Diego is a little angel and the sanest one of us all. Anytime I get sick of Charlie's terrible two behavior I can rely on Diego to make me smile again. He was definitely worth all those varicose veins afterall! I feel especially guilty when I neglect him to do something for Charlie and then when I take him out of the bjorn or pick him up he gives me the sweetest smile. I also feel terribly guilty because I spill food on him all the time when I have him in the bjorn or nursing. Poor guy. He still wakes up at 3 or 4am but it's not too bad and then I usually let cozy up with me after he wakes up again around 7. We went for his 2 month doctors appointment and all seems well. He weighed in at 12lbs 8 oz. That's a relief - I was worried that he might not be getting enough to eat given work and my divided attention.

Wild Thing

Charlie isn't the only one telling stories these days. Diego coos full sentences! I know it is a full story because he'll raise his eyebrows, his eyes will get big, his voice fluctuates and then his limbs flap around. It seems like an exciting story! I wish I knew what he was saying. Maybe he is describing how Charlie turned Diego's bouncey seat into a sling shot that almost sent Diego flying or how Charlie likes to climb into Diego's swing and turn it on.

This past week's treat was that we got to see our friends the Ralleses who were back in town from Cape Verde. Rachel Ralles knows more about babies and labor than I do (despite not yet having a baby) and Mike Ralles always wonders what tricks the boys have. He didn't seem very impressed when I said Diego can hold his head up...for a few moments. I wasn't very impressed either when I heard that Diego's yoga buddies (who happen to be girls his same age) are basically doing flips already. It did remind me of my favorite shirt growing up which read: "Anything boys can do girls can do better." Clearly this still holds true. Anyway, I decided my favorite trick of Diego's is being absurdly cozy.

Here is Charlie on his morning commute and enjoying happy hour at a bar on H st:


I've decided that Charlie should be Max from Where the Wild Things Are in homage to his inner monster. Unfortunately I seem to be the only one excited about this idea and even about Halloween. We decorated the front of the house because I thought I could finally enjoy Halloween now that I have kids. We don't have that many decorations out but we've had at least 5 people take pictures of the house (I assume that is why they are taking pictures...). I find it a little weird - who wants a picture of a few halloween decorations on a random house?! But I'm glad some one likes it because Charlie isn't that impressed.

Here is the most recent house project - the guest bathroom. Carlos has been hard at work tiling the shower (which unfortunately entails lots of cutting tiles and thus a big mess). Of course it was supposed to get done in time for our family to use when helping out when Diego was born. But plus or minus 2 months is a lot better than our plus or minus two year record so far...!

Terrible Twos

Awhile ago we were talking to a mother of a 2 year old who informed us that when her son turned two he turned into an asshole. I hadn't heard quite that version of terrible twos before, but I think I'm now experiencing it. Charlie will be sweet as pie one minute and then the monster of all monsters the next minute. He tests us about every little thing like putting on clothes in the morning or holding hands while crossing the street. I'm worried that I'm going to turn into the type of mother that lets her child out wearing pajamas the whole day because I can't face the fight. He literally went out the other day wearing two different pairs of shoes! Not two different socks - two different shoes!! I was mortified but I couldn't face the boneless screaming to get him to wear a matching pair.

Thank goodness for Diego. Diego is the sweetest baby and seems to sleep better than Charlie already! He doesn't mind Charlie's kisses or his body slams. He does still get me sometimes with his multiple consecutive poos, but other than that he is the best. My favorite is that he loves to stay cozy in bed and would happily stay cuddled up until 10am if he could. Unfortunately work and big brother's breakfast usually get in the way.

Other than the temper tantrums we've been having a great time with the fall weather. Last weekend we visited aunt Mary in Waterford for our annual pilgramage to the Waterford Fair. Charlie loved the Civil War re-enactors who marched (or "stomped" as he calls it) through the town. He got to ride on tractors, pose in a painting and try popcorn. We've been practicing our stomping ever since.

After his lobster truck love affair we decided to visit the food truck extravaganza this weekend. Charlie wasn't as taken with the lobster truck this time around but Carlos and I got to enjoy the TaKorean food after a 30 minute wait in line. These food trucks are making a killing! Check out the line:

We also had a great picnic on Saturday with friends which included some unathletic looking tennis and volleyball but the food was great and I was happy to be exercising outside. It's been awhile!

Sunday we got treated to Mark's super carrot pancake concoction. I totally want to hire him as my manny.