20 Sisters??

I don't claim to be a very good planner, but at least I am getting better at it with age. My husband, on the other hand, seems to be getting worse. Our tenants of three years moved out on Saturday night and Carlos agreed to let the new tenants move in on Sunday morning. We had plans for Saturday night so Sandra saved the day yet again by babysitting for us AND cleaning the apartment once the kids went to bed. Unfortunately we were still up until 4 in the morning doing maintenance and touch-ups. I don't think I've ever been so annoyed with Carlos as I was between 12 and 4am Saturday.

Of course the kids were up at 7am and Charlie doesn't nap so it was a long Sunday. Charlie and I have been using Diego's naptime to go out and do stuff together. On Saturday we saw Muts Gone Nuts which was a lot of fun. Charlie loved seeing dogs do tricks and then we enjoyed a post-theater snack. Here he is on stage with one of the dogs.

This weekend Charlie informed me that he would like baby sisters - 20 of them to be exact. He reduced that down to 5 and even helped out by naming them. Here are his proposed names....I don't think they'll be feature as one of 2012's Most Popular Names.....

Diego has developed an attitude if he doesn't get his way. And 5-7pm is usually a grumpy time overall for him. He seems to be absolutely exhausted by 7pm which makes me think we should put him to bed even earlier, but I'm petrified of him waking up any earlier. We had a playdate at a friends house on Sunday afternoon and by 5pm Diego pulled me over to the door and said "Go, Go, Go." Subtle hint.... Yes "GO" is part of his limited vocabulary. He seems to say thank you too though it sounds more like 'danku.' Here is my little man in a cute shirt that his uncle Seth sent.

On Sunday morning we had a playdate with Charlie's whole class which was really nice until a mom approached me to say that her son comes home everyday saying that Charlie kicks him. WHAT?! I was absolutely mortified. Could my son really be a closet bully? After all our main concern was that he only likes to hang out wiht girls. I talked to the teacher and it turns out that it was one pushing match during my long work trip and that has resulted in weeks of 3 year old fabrication. It was an interesting test of how defensive/protective I can be of my child. I don't like it when moms assume their kids can do no wrong but on the other hand I felt like he was being unfairly accused and immediately wanted to deny that it was even possible. I'm guessing that in another decade I'll look back and wish that the issues I face with kids are as simple as pushing matches....Here he is getting lunch after the playdate with his best school friend Cici.

On the Road

I signed Charlie up for ballet class and I'm pretty sure the teacher thinks I'm crazy. Not only is he the only boy in the class, but I forgot to take off the red nail polish that we put on for the chinese new year party. So there was my son with bright red nail polish surrounded by girls in leotards and ballet shoes! I actually wasn't sure which was more strange - Charlie's toes or the fact that 3 year old girls already have real ballet gear. Despite my initial horror Charlie loved the class.

I was in Atlanta this week and things seemed a little bumpy. Carlos forgot to take Diego back to the doctor to have them read the TB test, he forgot to take Charlie to his dance class, they ran out of milk and I'm pretty sure Charlie didn't take a bath. The most distressing news was that Charlie's teacher emailed to say that he acted agressive one day - he is never agressive or mean in school (he saves that for Diego). I'm wondering if his behaviour had something to do with my absence and so of course I feel terrible. I went on a field trip the day after I got back to try and make up for it, but I'm not sure it worked. Here are the kids on the metro.

We went to Philly for the weekend to see my mom and aunt Mary and the kids had a lot of fun. Diego loved playing with the outdoor toys and refused to come in despite the cold. We came home in time for the Disney on Ice show which was pretty funny. Charlie and I are both so Disney illiterate that we didn't know most of the movie references. Nevertheless it was really fun to go on a date with Charlie and I hope to make it a regular thing.

Diego went in for his 18 month appointment last week and he seems perfectly healthy. He is only in the 30th percentile for weight but at least he is staying consistent....The doctor said we'll start worrying at age 2 if he still doesn't talk.

Elizabeth and I did a painting class where we all painted the same scene while drinking wine. The fact that they felt the need to remind us to drink our wine and not the dirty paintbrush water is probably indicative of the quality of the work.... I'm not about to hang it in my house but we had fun.

Car Bumpers

The boys survived their first week together in the same room. It hasn't been totally smooth and they wake each other up earlier than before, but I'm glad that we made the move. Charlie was initially opposed to the idea and kept asking "what is THAT crib doing in my room?" He seems to have accepted it and even started looking forward to getting a bunkbed someday. One very negative outcome seems to be regressing on nighttime accidents.

Here are Charlie and Diego working on various packages we received this week. Please note the tool Charlie is using to open the package - his plastic wrench with eyeballs!

We've been getting a lot of packages recently because Carlos' random schemes are in full swing....The packages are mainly car parts and many of them are HUGE. In fact a bumper arrived at 419 New Jersey instead of 419 1st st so a santa-claus-looking gentleman came over to ask us to come and get it...from the Amway lobbyist house! A huge car bumper arriving at the Amway really makes me chuckle. What did not make me chuckle was the appearance of one of the car projects Carlos took on. Look at this piece of burned-out crap!

In other news, last week was Museum night at Charlie's school. Charlie's class did a winter scene and hibernation exhibit. Diego loved the fake snow and held his own by elbowing the bigger kids who tried to push him out of the way. I went with the goal of judging PK4 teachers based on their exhibit. I'm so terrible. But both were impressive and very different so it didn't work. This week we had parent-teacher conference which is so fun, except that it means that Charlie didn't have school. Charlie staying home all day with Sandra now is a disaster - he clearly needs structure and activities and soon I think he is going to need a cell phone! The whole day he kept asking me to call Cici and ask if she wanted to meet him at the playground or to come over...he even offered to go over to her house.

Best Work Bash

I'm going to try to have Charlie fail preschool because I'm 99.9% sure that he'll never have a better teacher than he does this year. Kindof sad to think that it may be all down hill from here....Ms Sadowsky is a Teach for America fellow which, unfortunately, means she may be gone before Diego can have her as a teacher. In addition to her weekly individual reports with photos and near weekly field trips, this week she organized a "best work bash" to show off the work of the students. Parents filed in to watch the students sing songs about...well, as far as I could understand the songs seemed to be about animals hibernating and birds migrating. She framed the best writing and painting samples from each child and some kids presented their work - of course Charlie stayed clear of the microphone. This was followed by a video montage of the kids throughout the year and then a pizza lunch for everyone. When I asked to get a copy of the video she said that she would do a dvd for each parent at the end of the year. Who is this woman and how do we clone her??! Unfortunately the rest of the school is not half as organized as she is -- all of the paperwork that I have submitted to the school has been lost and they still have the wrong birthdate for Charlie.

Diego loves going to Charlie's school as well. And the kids LOVE him. The poor kid gets mobbed and the three year olds (ok - only the girls) grab his cheeks and say funny adoring comments. I refuse to cut his hair so he does get quite a few girl comments, but I think it just makes him look even more angelic. He and Charlie are getting along slightly better and so we decided to move them back into the same room. We'll see how it goes, but I'm hoping that it will eventually make them closer. Diego doesn't talk, but he certainly lets his opinions be known with screeches, grunts and giggles. If we take something away from him he'll do his purring cry and melt onto the ground. I find it cute because I'm in denial of Diego ever doing anything wrong.

Here is Diego sending goodbye kisses to Sandra

Happy (Chinese) New Year!

We weren't organized enough to do a holiday party this year so we did a post-holiday party in celebration of Chinese New Year and the year of the dragon. As usual, I was up until 2am the night before getting ready because it's impossible to do anything once the kids are awake. I actually planned to have a babysitter here from 5pm on so that I would be able to finish cooking, but that was a disaster. Diego went BALLISTIC. He has never had a babysitter around while he is awake and clearly he didn't approve of the idea. I ended up carrying Diego and instructing her what to finish cooking! poor girl. Diego was fast asleep by the time people came over and Charlie was headed to bed, but just as we were saying goodnight his friend Ehren came over and sabotaged bedtime. They ended up running around upstairs until he decided he needed to go to bed and sent her away. Once things were settled upstairs, things deteriorated downstairs pretty quickly thanks to Carlos handing out shots early in the evening. That wasn't the only unfortunate news - it turns out that, according to the Chinese zodiac, Carlos and I (dog - dragon) combination are considered "a truly tumultous affair - not recommended for peace of mind." Oh well - I thought we were doing pretty well.

Unfortunately I didn't have a chance to take pictures, but we had fun decorating the house with chinese laterns, a long dragon along the ceiling and a chinese flag courtesy of our neighbors who used to live there. Charlie and I painted our toe nails red for the evening.

Despite people consuming a lot of food (including 150 fortune cookies!), we still have an absurd amount of Chinese left overs on my back porch.

On Sunday I took Charlie out while Diego and Carlos napped and was surprised how nice it was to just hang out with him. He is at the age that he is a fun companion even though we did boring routine things. After doing boring errands we both needed an afternoon treat so we went to a coffee shop and I got a latte and he got a muffin and we sat down to discuss life. It was so pleasant and fulfilling.

Charlie has been working on his writing and it's been so much fun to see his progress. Today I stayed at his school for morning meeting and group time where he wrote me a letter. Admittedly I suggested the content :) Clearly he needs to work on a few things, but I thought it was pretty cute.

Here is Diego playing with coffee beans with baby Emma at Kathleen's house.

Ode to Diego

Our friend Kathleen says that I don't profile Diego enough on the blog. The truth is that he is still my bag of sugar and so I feel like I don't have much to report. We think he is a little angel baby, but our neighbors said that he seemed like a handful and my aunt Mary said that he is a bag of sugar until he turns into a 'bottle of vinegar.' I think she was referring to Diego puking all over my mom's house....He is however starting to develop an attitude and has started to fight back against Charlie.

Diego loves to be outside, sleeps 12 hours at night and focuses on building and organizing things. I thought we were out of the woods with his health and development issues after his eye thing was cleared, but now I'm worried about his speech. He still grunts and points his way through life. He only says a few words and even when we repeat the words over and over he either shakes his head no or pronounces only part of the word. I was a late talker so I wasn't too worried about it until I saw how many words Charlie was saying by this same age.

Here is Diego organizing Carlos' clothes. He carefully empties the sock drawer then gets in and organizes the rest of the clothes...

This weekend we went to Chuck E. Cheese for the first time in my life (Charlie went once in Reno). They had so much fun that I almost feel badly I've deprived them thus far. Admittedly it's not my favorite place, but Charlie and Brett had fun trying the games together as did Diego and I. I'm a big air hockey fan so I put Diego on the table in front of his goal to give me more of a challenge. He was pretty good!

I can't help but document some of Charlie's weird habits. My most recent favorite is that when he goes to the bathroom he removes ALL of his clothes, puts them in another bathroom and then comes back to actually go to the bathroom. It's bizarre. His sleep habits are equally bizarre, but not new...

Welcome 2012!

We were in Reno for the past 2 weeks with Carlos family and we had a lot of fun. Charlie left cookies and a note out for Santa and in return Santa treated him very well for Christmas! The note looks a little like a ransom note, but I think Santa appreciated it.

Charlie took advantage of Reno by going to the casinos for a show! Here he is at the slot machine before enjoying Peter Pan from box seats.

He LOVED the Peter Pan show and kept referring to "Mr. Catain Hook." He also got to try ice skating and rollerskating, went on a ferris wheel, rode a gondola (many times), went sledding and tried tubing. My big goal was skiing, but with only man-made icy snow we decided for sledding and tubing. The gondola and the ferris wheel were big hits while ice skating, roller skating and tubing weren't. We got to take 2 tubing rides before Charlie dug in his heels and refused to again. It was a little too fast for him...and me.

On the Ferris Wheel:

At the rollerskating rink - is was packed!

Tubing and Gondola Ride:

Eating "scapetti" - as Charlie refers to it...

Diego saying "cheese" for the camera: