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.

1st Week of School

Our nanny Sandra finally came back after 5 weeks in El Salvador and all I can say is THANK GOD! Trying to piece together reliable and good child care coverage for 5 weeks is a total drain on productivity. In the span of 5 weeks we had various nannies and I took numerous days off when I didn't have coverage. One of those nannies included Charlie. Yes - I tasked Charlie with taking care of Diego at times! One week I had an 8am conference call and no coverage so I sat on the porch looking in through the glass doors as Charlie "took care" of Diego. 5 minutes into the call I saw Charlie go into the bathroom and emerge with wet hands which he used to sculpt Diego's hair into a mohawk. Charlie went back for more water at least 7 times as he perfected Diego's hairstyle. All I could think was "I really hope he isn't dipping his hands in the toilet....."

Last week was Charlie's first full week at school. He seems to really like it, but is EXHAUSTED by 5pm. On Tuesday we went to the park and by 5 he had a total meltdown and cried that he wanted to go to bed all the way home. He seems excited to go to school and excited to tell me what he did at school but it's tough to get a full story from him. He gives us small pieces of the day and then we try to put the bits together into a coherent school day. A webcam would be much easier. We figured out that he played duck duck goose with Coach Mitchell. Apparently some kid named Max in his class has a loud voice and you aren't supposed to talk unless you raise your hand in circle time.

In addition to Charlie carting water from the bathroom there is also water all over kitchen floor because our kitchen sink is our new bath tub! classic. It's been over a month since we decided to put marble around our bathtub and well...we are still using our kitchen sink as our bath tub. Despite the splashing causing lethally slippery floor I'm starting to like kitchen bathtime. Charlie doesn't like "taking a bath" but he does like "washing the dishes" so he sits in a bubble filled sink and washes dishes. Carlos and I eat dinner at the kitchen island while Charlie washes dishes! Here is Diego in the sink:

Charlie's First Day of School!

Charlie's first day of school was Friday. We've been talking about school forever and the day finally arrived. At the beginning of the summer he would pass Brent and say that he was going to cry when he went to school; in the middle of the summer he was saying that I was going to go to school with him; this week he was saying that I was going to cry not him. Despite my worries he did great. He didn't cry - he gave me, Carlos and Diego a kiss and say down in his spot for circle time. It was almost surreal. The whole day I worried he was melting down or might accidentally go pee during nap time.

When I arrived he casually walked out of the door with his back pack on just like a big boy. We walked home together and he told me about his day. My little boy is so grown up. I think he was right that I am the one who needs comforting.

Here he is heading to school

Here is his sport for circle time and his cubby

Here is Diego ready for school too:

Earthquake

It's a good thing that Carlos' mom gave me a gift certificate for a pedicure because yesterday I walked barefoot from the WWII Memorial. That's 1.6 miles on top of another 1.5 miles in heels. I am rarely out of my home office, but the only earthquake to occur in 100 years happened during a work lunch...on the other side of town! After surfacing from a basement level restaurant in search of a coffee shop where I could take a conference call I was shocked to see crowded streets due to evacuated buildings. It wasn't a big earthquake but everyone evacuated. The phone sporadically worked, but for the most part I couldn't make a call including to find out if the kids were okay. The walk was an interesting way to witness the city after a disaster. People were hanging out outside their offices - some telling terrible stories like "I passed a woman in the stairs having a heart attack" and others annoyed that they couldn't get their car out to go home. The monuments were closed and the capitol police barked at me if I crossed the street towards any of them.

Apparently Charlie was eating Cheerios when it happened and our poor substitute nanny grabbed both kids and ran outside. I finally was able to get through the house phone and 1 minute into our conversation she told me a man wanted to speak to me. It turned out to be a friend from the capitol needing a landline and a bathroom. We should have set up Charlie's food truck and lemonade stand - we would have made a killing as there was a captive audience roaming all over our street!

I made it home to find Charlie asleep on the coach. He re-told the story to grandma and it went something like "I was eating cereal and the house started to move and then it went boom-boom."

We had an exciting weekend too. Charlie, Diego and I drove to New Haven to see Seth start his MBA program and to see my grandparents. We had such a fun time and Charlie is certainly turning into my little buddy. The house is on the shore and Charlie and Diego finally found a beach they liked - full of rocks! Charlie attempted to single-handedly displace all of the rocks. It's a tough job, but he made a good attempt. We also took a walk across the marsh that we used to take when I was little. I remember it being such a long journey when I was little and was shocked to find how short it was when I was older. But this time around it was just as long as I remember as a kid. We only got 60% of the way across before turning back and by the end I had to carry both kids. We got to see where Seth is living and re-visit some of my favorite coffee shops around Yale's campus. The 7 hour drive each way was long, but totally worth it. Charlie stayed up late singing along to the music. Poor Diego was a little pissed off to have to sleep with music blasting but he survived.

A Good Week

Last week felt so L-O-N-G, but in the end it was really good. We heard back from the Doctor that Diego's eye condition is just physiological and not neurological. And Diego started walking! He is so cute when he walks - he holds his hands up like a zombie in Michael Jackson's Thriller and he wobbles from one foot to the other. He started walking on Friday - 3 days after his 1st birthday. Here he is doing his zombie walk.

The good news far outshadows how annoying the week was....and it was pretty annoying. Diego had his MRI on Wednesday and in preparation wasn't allowed to eat all day and didn't sleep. The whole morning I walked around in circles - getting absolutely nothing done because I was so preoccupied with the MRI. By the time we got to the hospital he was so cranky and I was on edge. I fell off the edge when we put him under and I had to walk away leaving him on the bed. But he was fine and came home in good spirits. The very next day I took them in for their 1 year and 3 year doctor appointments and they got 7 shots between the 2 of them. They were both pretty pissed off. Diego in his hospital gown:

And we rounded out the week with a leak in house I that kept Carlos on the roof in the pouring rain until midnight. That's definitely not safe, but a classic Carlos move.

Despite a long week, we did get to enjoy Sunday blackberry picking and our favorite BBQ place in Virginia.

Last week we went to Philly which is always lots of fun and then went over to a see a friend who will be in Charlie's pre-school class. Carlos and I decided that she would make a suitable first girlfriend. Here they are enjoying popsicles together.

Charlie has had some memorable moments recently. For instance, he tried to pick Diego up by the neck. On a nicer note he is obsessed with blasting his music in the car and singing along. If it isn't full blast - it isn't loud enough. He also insists that you look at him when he talks - he doesn't believe that you can listen without looking. The funniest is when he tries to talk to Diego and have Diego look at him. This is how the conversation went last night:

"Diego, Diego, Diego"

Diego looks at Charlie...

"Diego, you're just little..."

Diego looks away

Charlie screams "DIEGO"

Diego looks.

"Diego, you are just little so...."

Diego looks away

"DIEGO!!"

Diego looks

"Diego, you are just little so you..."

Diego looks away

"DIEGO!!!"

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.

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and it went on and on.