My friend Maria came to visit us this weekend and she didn't have much luck breaking Charlie's shyness until the music started playing and her iphone came out. Charlie loves to be on video! Here he is rocking out in the middle of Eastern Market

I think he invented a new dance move this weekend called "snaking' (his term). It's part worm, part slither. It's pretty awesome and has become part of his dance routines.

Diego continues to be my sweet sweetness. I just love to be around him - he brings me so much joy. One of my favorite things is that he loves to sit in our lap and play - the other day we were at a friend's house for dinner and he sat in my lap letting us eat and talk for an hour! His smile is so cute and funny with the missing front tooth. He still doesn't say anything but he does screech "mama" when he wants me to pick him up. And I believe he is starting to have tempertantrums - when I take something from him he flops down on the floor, kicks his feet and does his purring cry.

Unfortunately Diego and Charlie both had a bumpy transition this week. I'm not sure if it was because of my travels or what. Diego wouldn't stop crying when I put him to bed the night after I got home. And Charlie cried for the first time since school started when I dropped him off. Charlie's sleeping continues to be an issue - a MAJOR issue. In fact I don't like Charlie between the hours of 7pm and 7am. And he certainly is not making the case for another baby brother/sister....

However from 7am-7pm he is pretty fun. The other day he told me that Santa Claus was the vice president of the United States. He knows who Obama and Biden are so it was interesting and hysterical to try to decipher what he was trying to say about Santa and our government. Any thoughts?

Too Much Travel!

Three weeks ago I was in Switzerland for nearly a week and last week I was in San Francisco for almost a week. I can't complain about the locations, but my poor husband is about to kill me. I've noticed that day three is the tipping point - more than 3 days and things start going downhill and everyone gets cranky (me included). Luckily this past week Abuela (Carlos' mom) was here to help out and Charlie loved having her stay.

Here are some pictures of Vevey in Switzerland. wow - this place is gorgeous. The meeting was hosted by Nestle, which is headquartered here, and I kept telling them to hire me....

I met up with an old friend of mine for 24 hours in Paris on my way back. I haven't been to Paris since middle school and I haven't seen this friend for 15 years!! Now I'm really looking forward to cashing in on the bet that Carlos lost - a vacation to Paris planned by the loser. He lost the bet when he didn't finish the house before Charlie was born and then the poor guy doubled down and lost again when Diego beat the house project.

Here are some pictures of Paris.

Couples put locks on the bridge overlooking Notre Dame to seal their timeless love...:)

Because of the travel I missed my favorite holiday - HALLOWEEN! I was so sad to not get to trick or treat with the kids. To make up for it we had a pumpkin carving party....of course with the three year olds I figured that carving was a long shot so I got sticky eyeballs and wax teeth. The kids definitely liked the sticky eyeballs more than the pumpkins and they realized they could throw them against the wall and watch them slime down.

Charlie took part in the school's book character parade - he dressed up as Max again and marched around the school. He made the circuit and asked "where is the parade?" We had spent so much time talking about the school parade that it was hard for him to realize that he WAS the parade.

Really Delayed Post...

wow - I'm so far behind! I lost the cord to my camera and haven't been able to download pictures! So - I'll post what I have....

Here is Charlie's school pictures which I think are hysterical. Very cute, but very fake looking. I bought the whole package and have no idea what I'll do with the prints.
Charlie really seems to like school. As far as I can tell he mainly plays with the girls which I think is great. The girls seem to play much more civilized games than boys do. Recently he seems to like to play with Jack and when I asked him why he likes Jack he answered "Because he has down hair just like me." I burst out laughing. He was referring to the fact that despite my best attempts to part his hair it always falls down straight over his forehead. In fact he flattens it down! Here he is on a field trip with his class to the postal musuem

Last weekend we went to pick pumpkins and enjoyed the halloween festival at Butlers:

A few weekends ago we had a somewhat amusing attempt at camping with Isaac and his family. It was pretty hysterical....though not at the time given that none of us got any sleep. Diego seemed to be able to smell me and cried out only to wake up Charlie and this went back and forth the whole night.

My angel Diego grunts his way through the day. He doesn't seem to have any need for words as we all know exactly what he is grunting about. Charlie continues to mainly use Diego as target practice - knocking him over and stealing toys.

Apple Picking

I love weekends even more since Charlie started school. Mainly because by the time 5pm rolls around Charlie is exhausted and grumpy. He has only slept 3 times at school and by 5pm he is a disaster. During the week we seem to get the not very good parts of the day with him: 5-8am and 5-7pm. He usually wakes up sometime around 5am wanting food. It drives us nuts. Diego sleeps like a champ (or maybe it's just how normal kids sleep) while every night is a new adventure with Charlie. So the weekends are fun because we actually get to play with the kids.

That said, Carlos and I have different ideas about how to enjoy the weekends. I like to pack the time with activities outside the house because I'm stuck in the house all week and he wants to relax inside the house. I usually win.

Here is Charlie enjoying the last of the Friday night Yards Park concerts. They look like they are at a middle school dance!

Here are the boys going apple, rasberry and flower picking on a beautiful Sunday

School Pictures

Last week I was in Atlanta and as soon as I landed I got a call from Charlie demanding "Mommy, come home NOW and take me to school." That was cute (and kindof sad). He knows that I go to Atlanta for work but he has no idea that Atlanta is not around the corner.

We were on our own for the weekend while Carlos was in Chicago. It was a fun and full weekend. Charlie had his first soccer "practice" which was hysterical. I knew it would be nutty, but I had no idea how chaotic it would be. It's pretty useless but I figure it gives us organized time to kick the ball around. Let' s just say I'm not getting cleats anytime soon...

We went to an animal farm in Leesburg which I thought was weird, but the kids had a crazy good time. Charlie actually fed the animals as Diego and I looked on in horror. Here he is...

School seems to be going well. This week they had school pictures and I hung around to watch. It was priceless watching Charlie put on a fake smile and follow directions about tilting his head this way and that way. I only caught the end of it on tape unfortunately.

School certainly seems to have triggered some independence in Charlie. He is all about doing things on his own - in particular going to the bathroom. He goes to the bathroom without even telling me now - this scares me a because I've read about the lid dropping on little toddler body parts. Even more scary is that he goes poo without telling me and this is raising all sorts of other issues. Diego also seems to be captivated by the toilet -- namely putting things into it!! I caught him today trying to put Charlie's shoe in the toilet!

I volunteered to take on a room parent role for the class which has provided an interesting insight into parent involvement in the school. I guess the school was about to close 5 years ago and the parents stepped in to improve it and make it a school that inbound families were interested in. I'm usually skeptical of overly zealous parent involvement, but I'm realizing how important this has been to the school so I'm reserving judgement and scolding my presumptions. That said, it was funny going to the room parent meeting which was all women, many of whom insisted they "weren't type A people...." I figure that anyone who feels the need in a group setting to say they aren't type A are probably type A personalities...

Labor Day Olympics

We went to Cleveland last weekend to visit my grandparents and to partake in the "Labor Day Olympics." The Olympics include events like chasing a greased-up watermelon in the pool, three-legged races, a vegetable sculpture contest, a tug-of-war and a tennis tournament. It's serious business. Our departure was delayed due to some crazy illness on Friday. But I really wanted Charlie to do the three-legged race with his cousin Wallis so we packed the car and drove the 6 hours on Saturday morning.

Luckily, we arrived just in time for me to join my favorite event - the greased watermelon!! I'd say it was fate, but my team lost. I had so much fun, but everytime I looked up I saw Charlie (and Carlos) looking at me in absolute horror. Charlie and Wallis were super cute together in the three-legged race. Here they are (with help from Carlos) and with their ribbons. I'd also like to add that Carlos and I beat Nathan and Charlie in the big people three-legged race.

In addition to the field events they loved doing the vegetable sculpture. Charlie, Wallis and Eli actually worked together to put together a vegetable tribute to Hurricane Irene. They were so patient and proud of their entry for which they got another ribbon. Uncle Charlie won the around-the-back-stop-race which enabled my father to go on living another year.

Unfortunately the bonfire and s'mores were rained out and the drive back took 10 hours. yes - 10 hours. For 3 hours we were parked on the highway...literally. Here is what most of the 3 hours looked like...The kids were out of their seats, driving the car and playing with the radio.

Despite the long ride the kids did great and we had wonderful weekend.