Spring is Here!

We think spring is finally here!  We’ve been having such fun taking advantage of the longer days and warmer weather.  It seems just as hard for me to “give up” on the day as it is for the kids – hence the fact that they’ve been getting to bed crazy late recently.  We’ve found many new fun places to go biking and scooting.  Charlie has taken to riding down stairs and Diego does kamikaze scooting.  In the afternoons on weekdays Yards Park is nearly empty so Sofia and I stand on the bridge and let Charlie and Diego do a big circuit around the park.   Hains Point is also a fun ride with the Cherry Blossoms in full bloom.

Sofia loves to be part of the action.  She LOVES playgrounds – and slides in particular.  I wonder if the person who invented slides knew that kids would like to climb them just as much, or more, than going down them.  Sofia likes to just sit at the base of the slides and/or climb up.  Going down seems to be very passé to her.  She also loves Diego’s scooter and tries her best to figure out how to use it.  Mostly she just walks next to it.  Although she can walk, she doesn’t have a lot of confidence and ends up crawling mostly.

We celebrated her birthday with some SAIS friends who also have little babies. As you can probably tell from the angle, Charlie took the pictures of us singing Happy Birthday with cupcakes in hand.  Here is Sofia on her birthday interacting with a littler person.  

This past weekend cousins Wallis and Eli came for a visit.  Within 24 hours the house looked like a bomb went off, but it was totally worth it given how much fun they had.  They worked so hard out back digging up my planters and spreading the dirt over the whole patio.  They each had different tools and carefully spread the dirt to every corner .  Good thing our backyard is so small!  While Charlie went to his Little League game (where he got all 3 outs as first basemen and was VERY proud of himself), the rest of us went to see the Cherry Blossom parade and then walk down to the Tidal Basin.  It always amazes me how many people come out for the Cherry Blossom festival.  The Tidal Basin was packed.  In the 36 weekend hours remaining, the kids dyed Easter Eggs, went biking, established secret hiding places through-out the house, turned the third floor into a playroom and found anything else dangerous in the house to occupy themselves.   Finally Eli said to me: "It feels like we've played with EVERYTHING in this house!"  By the time Sunday evening rolled around, I passed out while putting the kids to bed.  That was a first for me! 

I took a field trip with Diego to see Step Afrika at the Hill center.  He was super into stepping. We've been having playdates with his favorite friend, Bruce - who Diego fondly calls "Brucey".  They are hysterical together.

We've been enjoying Happy Hour at 7th Hill Pizza - $5 individual pizzas!  Charlie ate 9 pieces the other day. 

 In other news, we finally turned out basement apartment into a short term rental through VRBO and airbnb.  Having dealt with both now for the past two weeks, VRBO feels so old-economy compared to airbnb.  It is so much more cumbersome and bureaucratic. I put up the apartment online about two weeks ago and it is booked through most of July.  Perhaps my pricing is bad!  I'm hoping that during the winter months when things are slower in DC, the kids can use it as a fun play space.  We'll see how the whole experiment goes...Here are a few pictures of the place:

Sofia Turns 1!!!

Sofia turned 1!!  And she started walking just in time!  She took her first real steps over on Sunday afternoon - 2 days before her birthday!  She looks a bit like a zombie when she walks, but it is super cute.  She doesn't say much other than "Hi" to everyone she sees.  She still likes to be in the bjorn so she can wave and greet everyone on the street.  Her hair has barely grown and she looks funny with 5 teeth in various stages.  She is the best.

It’s so amazing to think that a whole year has passed.  I still think of her as my little baby.  Then again, I still think of Diego as my little baby too.  Even Charlie said "it doesn't seem like she should be a year. it seems like she was just born a little bit ago."  That said, it is hard to imagine how our family existed without her. She is such a wonderful addition and I absolutely adore her.  I love watching her play intently with random toys(though unfortunately her favorite toy seems to be shoes); I love how much she adores her brothers (though I don’t adore how they torment her); I love that she still loves to nurse (though I didn’t love her recent solid food strike).

After my recent trip to Atlanta, Sofia went on a full food strike.  For almost a week she refused to eat any solids.  She only wanted to nurse.  I thought it was the cold she had or her THREE teeth that came in at the same time.  It might have been partially that, but I also think it was her protesting my departure.  I think she is going to be quite stubborn.

The boys thoroughly enjoyed Sofia's birthday for her.  We made her some banana muffins which the boys decorated with icing, they stuck a candle in each one, sang her happy birthday, blew out the candles themselves and ate the muffins themselves.  Poor Sofia had no idea what was going on. 

  

 In other news, Diego had family day at school which was pretty cute, although he didn't sing that much: http://youtu.be/wj2go5W5EtM.    He has developed close friendships with a few boys in his class.  Charlie played with the girls in Pre-k3 and only recently has focused on hanging out with boys.  Diego, on the other hand, has no interest in playing with the girls! all boy, all of the time!

It's been awhile.....

I'm finally posting after many colds, family adventures and travel!  We've all been slammed by a never-ending  cold/cough/sore throat and in the middle of it I had two back to back work trips.  Leaving Carlos sick with three sick kids was a recipe for disaster, so luckily my mom came down to help. Of course we infected her too...No good deed goes unpunished!

A few weeks ago the kids had 'museum night' at school and it was amazing.   Diego's class had done a walking tour of all their classmates' houses and then created a mural of their rowhouses   Each student  decorated his/her own house and some were identifiable and others less so - like Diego's!  As you can see, he did do black stairs and a purple door...a bit abstract.  Some girls, on the other hand, were using rulers to make perfect lines to represent siding!

Charlie's class did a market place where they "sold" items to parents.  Charlie and his friends did the "healthy stand" with salad and vegetables.  They drew pictures of the vegetables, labelled and priced them!  The purpose of the exercise was to have the kids add up the prices and charge the parents the total.  really cool.

There were other school events like the read-along and character parade. Principal Young was the Cat in the Hat - not the best performance, but the kids were cute.  Diego was the pickle from the Hungry Caterpillar.  Diego loves pickles so it was the perfect role!  I went with Diego on a field trip to Capitol Hill Arts Workshop and he loved the ceramics portion  - he was a natural (less so the dancing part)!

We went on a weekend ski trip with my brothers and it was so fun.  the mountain wasn't much of a mountain, but Charlie was in heaven.  Not only did he get to hang out with Wallis and Eli, but he got loads of attention from his uncles.  He was especially smitten by big Charlie and his girlfriend Alex.  He only wanted to ski with the his uncles and cousins (not his dad) and when we got home he wrote a letter to Alex telling her how much he missed her.  Diego didn't go skiing, but he did go tubing and then he and I broke into a nearby hotel pool to go swimming.  The clientele at the pool were....interesting.  One guy was completely covered in tattoos which amazed Diego.  Diego had a temporary tattoo that he wanted to show the guy so we asked to compare tattoos.  The guy was so sweet and acted excited to see Diego's tattoo.  He did then offer to give Diego a ride on his back across the pool which both Diego and I politely refused (I wasn't entirely sure he was sober).  

We found a great train watching spot behind Union Station.  I loved that it was an activity that all three kids could enjoy!

Enjoying a nice spring day before more winter hit us AGAIN:

The next day looked like this....

Little League! I can't believe my child is old enough (and interested enough) for Little League!!  well, actually I lied about his age so that he could join his friends in Little League.  T-ball was getting too boring for him.  They had a "workout" day in which they actually had numbers placed on there backs and parent coaches walking around taking notes.  no wonder they talk about things getting competitive in Little League! Luckily Charlie just had fun and is excited to start playing next month.

How much do you think the boys enjoyed having tractor next door digging up the neighbor's front yard?  Answer: a lot more than me!!

Sofia hasn't been feeling well and is refusing to eat solid food.  She only wants to nurse.  Is it teething? Is she protesting my last trip? Is it a weird developmental thing?  It's driving me crazy!