City Escape

Last weekend we decided to get some non-urban air so went out to Waterford and Harper's Ferry. It was nice to get out of the city and those trips always make me want to have a cabin somewhere. I think a simple getaway would be especially fun for the little monsters too after seeing how much Charlie likes playing in our tiny backyard. Maybe someday....

Here we are in checking out a massive easter nest at my aunt's house in Waterford. And strolling around Harper's Ferry.

As for the backyard...well progress has been slow. The fake weather reports warning of rain derailed our progress and so Charlie's tree-fort isn't done yet. But he still loves it. He takes crayons out and draws on the wall. He digs holes in the dirt (which should be grass) and uses the construction debris as an obstacle course. The other day Charlie decided he wanted to go outside and so put on the only shoes he knows how to put on himself - his fireman boots. The thing is that everytime he INSISTS on putting the boots on the wrong feet. Despite having the shoes on the wrong feet he demonstrated impressive soccer skills! He clearly favors his right foot, but then again it was his left shoe so I'm hoping this means he'll be adept with both feet! Now that I know he can kick the ball with some coordination I'm already dreaming up soccer drills for this summer.

This week has been hectic for work but it's ending on a good note because it's sunny, my brother got into business school and I finished my half-marathon in the time I had hoped for!

London & Philadelphia

Carlos survived 4 nights alone with 2 babies! Impressive! And they all seemed to be in a good mood when I arrived home. They were waiting at the front door as I walked up which was the most precious image. Charlie hugged my leg, told me that he liked me and then waited expectantly for a present. The last time I went to Atlanta I brought him back Fanta flavored chapsticks so when I told him I was going on another trip he thought about it and then asked "You bring me back some lipstick?" I guess trips = chapstick. I brought him back the bags you get on overseas business class flights filled with little treasures like lotion, chapstick, ear plugs, kleenex, etc and he could not have been more excited. He unpacked, repacked, unpacked, sorted and repacked that thing until it was bedtime at which point the only way I could get him in bed was to let him sleep with it.

To give Carlos a break I took the kids to Philadelphia for the weekend. Charlie loved having a big yard filled with toys (I still have no idea how my mom has more toys than I do). He was treated to a private fire truck viewing as the fireman brought the engine out and put the ladder up. On Sunday we went to a really neat playspace on Kelly Drive that is a wonderland for kids and is free! The outdoor playgrounds look even better so we'll have to go back when the weather gets warmer. One more reason to look forward to Spring.

Diego continues to by my little bag of sugar - he is so sweet! Nowadays he is tasting his way through the world. I don't remember Charlie eating everything the way that Diego does. He'll grab anything within reach (which is surprisingly a lot given his short arm span!) and put it into his mouth. Despite liking to taste everything he still doesn't love solid food. He is starting to tolerate it, but clearly doesn't look forward to the next bite. He is also very picky about wanting to eat from a bottle instead of nursing. I guess the view while nursing is too boring....He is sitting up like a champ so I often forget that he doesn't really know how to keep himself upright and I'll leave him be only to turn around and find him tipped over. He doesn't seem to mind much and I think it's pretty amusing. Here is Diego eating some blocks.

Charlie is doing some funny things like making up words. I hope it's normal. Today he ran around the house nearly screaming in a totally made up language. Carlos thinks it is a sign of creativity - I think it is slightly worrisome.

Goodbye to a Crappy Week

Last week was such a crappy week that I didn't bother to write. No one would have been smiling for pictures as we were all sick and tired - no one more so than poor little Diego. He was wheezing, coughing, running a terrible fever, couldn't eat anything....and of course not sleeping. Work has been busy so after pulling (what at least felt like) all-nighters I would stumble out of bed and get on 8am conference calls. Luckily I don't have to travel far to get to my office and no one could see me! We were so consumed with Diego's wheezing and Charlie's fever that we forgot it was our 4 year wedding anniversary. We celebrated that evening with bad news that Charlie didn't get into school through the lottery and so spent the rest of the evening looking into charter school options. At Friday's doctors appointment I found out that Diego dropped precipitiously to the 25th percentile for weight (I'm hoping it was just the illness). And the crappy week was capped off with Carlos' bike getting stolen from our back porch. Although the bike was nice we are mostly disturbed by the fact that some one maneuvered through a very narrow dirt path, open our backyard gate and walked onto our porch!

Unfortunately I think this week is going to be pretty bad too because I leave for London Monday-Friday and neither Diego nor Charlie are back to 100%. Poor Carlos has both babies for 4 nights!

At least we had a nice family weekend - not too exciting, but nice just to spend time together. We went to Ikea and Charlie loved roaming the store - which he did while singing at the top of his lungs. Here is a short clip:

We also went to Home Depot all together after a long hiatus (I haven't been in forever) and was reminded why we call it Second Home Depot. Literally all the workers know Carlos....Charlie especially loved riding on the dangerous cart and carrying 15 ft long trim pieces on his shoulder looking like he was about to pole vault. On the other hand Diego showed his dislike for the place by throwing up in the lumber section. Here is Charlie on the cart.

Here are the boys during our weekend ritual of eating breakfast by the fire.

The Blackberry Phase

No one sleeps in this household these days. Charlie continues to break new boundaries with his bizarre sleeping issues and add to that the fact that he has the flu and you get a week of blurry-eyed mornings (for us). Diego seems to have RSV and hasn't been able to sleep well either. My initial enthusiasm for Charlie going #2 in the toilet has waned as it seems to have an unforeseen consequence of him not liking to ever have a diaper on...even when going to bed. Every night we put a diaper on and then watch on the monitor how he takes off his pajamas, removes his diaper and then puts back on his pajamas (often times backwards). The only thing to do is wait until he passes out and then put a diaper on him. But the timing doesn't always work out in our favor and he's gotten everything wet various times. On top of that he thinks it's fun to wake us up at night telling us that he needs to go pee in the toilet. And still other times he seems to have nightmares - which usually involve a big 'mono' - and yells out. This morning was one of those mornings when I was glad to see daylight because I'm tired of battling all night, my eyeballs sting and I'm nauseous from not sleeping. Fun start to the weekend!

Other than the week long illness we are doing well. Charlie is endlessly amusing with his sayings and his reasoning. He is working on his letters, but is hopeless when it comes to colors. He knows all the colors - he just doesn't know which is which. He likes to point out "Cs" and scream "C for Charlie" though alot of time it's an O, or even something random like "7."

Diego has entered his blackberry phase. It's a phase I think all babies of this generation go through until they graduate to the iphone. Charlie will have nothing to do with my blackberry ever since he found that it didn't have a touchscreen. But Diego loves it. He still has shown no interest in moving anywhere, but he does like to sit up and play and watch his brother. He has the cutest sad face/cry that must be unique to younger siblings. I feel like I never saw this on Charlie because no one ever took his toy or hit him the way that poor Diego suffers at Charlie's hands. When Charlie takes his toy Diego instantly puts on a sad face and wails. It stops immediately once I return the toy to him. It sounds terrible, but it's so cute that I laugh when he does it sometimes.

Last weekend we went to see The Singing Lizard and here is Charlie the groupie dancing with Diego

We also had the SAIS band get back together for another gig. Good stuff.

TMI

Yesterday was the first time Charlie has ever asked to go poo in the toilet! sorry - too much information - but I wanted to record it for posterity sake. I guess it is the silver lining of him giving up his nap as he no longer has a chance to have a diaper on during the day.

Lipstick

My apologies to the grandmothers for being so delinquent....

I just arrived back from Atlanta for work where it's nice to get a full night's sleep but not worth the grumpy husband on the other end of the phone. Poor Carlos had the babies for 3 evenings!

In addition to my travels we've had some of Carlos' family friends from Chile staying with us for the last few weeks. I'm pretty sure they thought we are crazy! Seeing our life with 2 small kids through the eyes of people without kids is comical. Something is always going wrong, some one is always crying or being loud or getting hurt, some one is always waking up at night....On top of that you should have seen the look on the one woman's face when she saw the pile of lumber that my husband made me carry up three flights of stairs in the freezing cold. I haven't seen some one so mortified in a long time.

The boys are doing well. Last night our little monster Charlie refused to wear his diaper to bed. We put him in bed with the diaper on and 10 min. later he yelled down that he took it off. This happened 3 or 4 times before we decided that he won and let him go to sleep without a diaper. When he was totally passed out I put a diaper on him. I brought him Fanta flavored chapstick from the Coke store because they don't have much else for kids (they aren't allowed to market to kids) and he slept with it under his pillow. He LOVES chapstick - which he calls "lipstick."

My bag of sugar Diego survived my travel, but not happily and now he has a cold.

Here are some pictures from the last 2 weeks....It seems that Charlie still fits in the Bjorn....just not very well:

We played tour guide and went to Mount Vernon:

I caught half of the alphabet on video:

I'm really glad that I installed a gate at the bottom of the stairs. Here is Charlie sliding under the handrail to climb up the stairs. And yes...he does it all the time.

Charlie's "Ling Ling"

My bag of sugar:

Last weekend our favorite 'manny' Mark and Sarah came over. Not only did they bring good food but they had a jam session with Charlie.

Here is another "ling ling" session - Charlie trying to play along with his favorite song....Actually I think he is mostly just in love with the little girl singing the song and who can blame him!
When I said that Charlie is back to being sweet I think I lied or was in denial. He has pretty much given up his naps completely and even quiet time is going out the window because it was becoming 'destruction time.' We cleared out every possible fun distraction from his room which made it kindof a sad place. But that didn't stop him - with no toys or books to entertain himself he turned his attention elsewhere. For instance one day he took every item of clothing that was hanging up in his room off the hangers and shoved them under his crib. Another day he found a box of wipies and meticulusly took each one out and piled them on the floor. He is usually proud of his endeavors so it's tough to get too mad, but we have cut the quiet time significantly...

Here are Charlie and Diego enjoying teatime with Sandra and Lesli