Haircuts and More

Baby #3 has given me a bloated belly, a chocolate craving and even bigger varicose veins.  Great.  Charlie and Diego are getting more excited about the baby and charlie even says goodnight to him/her at bedtime.  Actually, I think it is just one more delay tactic.  He finds a million and one things to do instead of going to bed.  We often leave them in bed and then when we go check on them a few minutes later Charlie has turned on the light and is dancing or otherwise entertaining Diego.  Here is my favorite night owl activity....he found tia Veronika's sticky paper and wrote notes then stuck them on the bathroom door.  You'll notice they are very complete and very illegible...

Charlie has been spending mondays with tia Veronika which he LOVES.  It has also been nice for us to spend time one on one with Diego.  He is so different without Charlie around - no crying, screaming or fits.  It made me realize how, as the younger one, he is always fighting for attention and space around Charlie.  I didn't believe when people said to be careful that Diego doesn't get the middle kid syndrome when #3 arrives but I'm seeing that it is true.  It also feels like Diego is fierce in his independence while Charlie feels like his heart belongs to us. 

Diego is all little boy now - no more cozy baby.  He loves water - he talks us into at least two baths a day - and loves to be outside.  Usually he spends part of the evening in the kitchen sink "doing dishes" while I cook dinner.  I also find that he eats better when he is in the sink so I often feed him dinner there!  Here he is enjoying dinner in the sink and breakfast on the porch:

Last weekend Stephanie joined us for a mini-hike to Great Falls followed by bubble tea and haircuts for the boys at the Eden Center.  Despite my fear they look cute and I saved some of Diego's hair. 

This past weekend we got the rare treat of seeing the Ralles family who were back in town briefly from Vienna (that's Austria, not Virginia).  I wish they would move back here and people would stop fleeing DC!!  Here is the mini-SAIS reunion (charlie took this picture).

 

Charlie on a REAL tank!

Charlie in deep thought at yards park

12 Weeks!

I think taking the pacifier away from Diego hastened the onset of terrible twos.  He wants to play with any toy charlie has and then throws a fit when he doesn't get it.  And he never gets the toy.  Charlie is not the most gracious older brother so he refuses to share ANYTHING with his younger brother.  Taken together they are a disaster! I had told Carlos that my angel Diego would never hit terrible twos but I seem to be eating my words....Sadly I think the fighting will continue well beyond terrible twos. 
Other than fights and a lingering cold we are doing well.  Carlos decided he didn't like our bathroom so it's gone.  As in totally gone!  The removal of tiles was so loud that it made conference calls nearly impossible. I tried every corner of the house in search of a quiet space.  The other day I hid in the half bath to take a conference call only to have one of the guys working here walk in to use the bathroom.  If he doesn't already think I am crazy he surely did as I walked out of the bathroom talking on the phone with my computer in hand.... 

Charlie has finally taken to wholeheartedly participating in new things.  I signed him up for piano, ballet, swim, percussion and soccer classes and in each case he is super excited to go.  I'm so proud of him for finally ceasing to grab my leg and refuse to participate in anything.  On the other hand I think I may have created an activity monster....He remains the only boy in ballet and the only one who doesn't show up in pink (or a leotard for that matter).  It doesn't seem to phase him.  I feel a little (ok a lot) silly for signing a 4 year old up for so many classes.  I think I am living vicariously through my children...   
Here is Charlie at swim class (notice how she pushes him under and then he pretends not to think it is scary...):

 

Here is what reading time devolves into every night (wrestling with carlos):

I guess the BIG news is that #3 is on the way!  It was a happy surprise for all of us!  His/Her due date is March 29th!  Here are the most recent sonogram pictures. 



crossed feet in top pic! so cute!



Blue Ribbons

Charlie started Pre-k 4!  Here he is on his first day of school! 

Despite being travelled-out we drove south to Charlottesville and then north to Cleveland over Labor Day, logging 18 hours in the car.  Despite seeing the inside of the Tank a lot we had a great time.  We were in Charlottesville for Meyer's wedding which was beautiful.  It was at a vineyard with gorgeous mountain views and a donut food truck for the dessert!  Around midnight we got back in the car and headed home to relieve poor Sandra who agreed to stay until 3am.  In the morning we packed up the car and left for Cleveland for the Labor Day Olympics.  Sadly we missed the greased up watermelon in the pool event (my all time favorite) but we did make it for the field events on Sunday.  Charlie was beyond excited for the big races and woke up Abuelo early to get a warm-up course going.  I was very proud of our family performance - tios Nathan and Seth made it to the tennis tournament final (sadly they lost), big tio Charlie won the around the backstop race and little Charlie won both the kids foot race and the three-legged race and Carlos won the mixed-up doubles tennis.  We didn't fair very well in the pond fishing competition, but our vegetable sculpture was pretty cute.  My dad must have infected Charlie with a track bug because he constantly wants to run races.  The whole weekend he would drag any willing body (usually his cousins, my dad or tios Charlie and Seth) to the start line.  The cutest thing about the kids race was that all the kids stopped at the string designating the finish line - they ran as fast as they could and then stopped abruptly so as not to disturb the string.   

The kids lining up for the big race

Charlie won!  Diego came in last...

Diego and I try the 3-legged race but lose to Charlie and Charlie

Charlie and I try the 3-legged race....

With ribbons...

vegetable sculpture contest - ours was The Three Muska-Tillos (tomatillos decorated as the 3 cousins)




We were the only ones NOT to catch a fish....

 


 

on my grandparents pond in a very old canoe



Charlie has become a tough negotiator these days.  He finds flaws in our reasoning or escalates the negotiation.  Last week when he wasn't sharing a new toy with Diego we told him we were going to return the toy to the store to which he responded "you can't return it after I opened it and played with it."  On the car ride home I said that he could use the iphone only if he stopped complaining and waited for Diego to go to sleep.  He didn't like that so he told me "if you don't let me use the iphone now I'm going to go outside (of the house) without a grown-up."  using my own negotiating tactics against me?  what kindof terrorist is he?!

Diego is still my little angel.  He is talking more and couldn't have a brighter smile.  That said we've had a few sleepless nights with him as we took away his pacifier last week.  He is doing okay overall but he'll wake up in the night and have a hard time going back to sleep.  I've spent a lot of early mornings inside his crib with him.  It's a small space and I may be over the weight limit but I'm too tired to try anything else.

Connecticut to Carolinas

We've had an eventful few weeks and are officially travelled-out.  At least until this weekend....Two weekends ago Diego and I took the train to Connecticut to see my brother, my dad and my grandmother in Pine Orchard.  Despite being a 5.5 hour ride in a totally full train Diego did great - there and back.  That said, he was so traumatized by the long train ride that when I tried to get on the metro the next day he screamed "NO TRAIN, NO TRAIN, NO TRAIN!"  We both had a really nice time in Pine Orchard and Diego worked very hard to clear the rocky beach.  He threw rock after rock after rock into the water with no sign of getting bored or tired.  I think I can say he is officially left handed/footed which I find very exciting for his soccer prospects.

Our long hike through the marshes to Stony Creek

This past weekend we drove 7 hours to make it to Bald Head Island, North Carolina.  There are no cars on the island so we took a ferry across and made use of the rental house's golf carts.  Between golf carts, the pool and the beach Charlie and Diego were in heaven.  Oh - and we stayed with Charlie's girlfriend Cici and her family.  Cici and Charlie were inseperable the whole trip and acted like an old married couple.  I loved eavesdropping on their conversations which were lengthy but hard to follow due to their lack of substance....
Charlie preferred the pool but Diego preferred the beach so he and I would enjoy long walks on the beach.  There weren't as many rocks to move so he settled for splashing in the waves.  We got to see the turtles excavated from a nest where most turtles had already escaped.  It seems that the turtles hatch and may climb for days to get out of the nest and waddle to the waves where they then get pummeled by the white water.  These were turtles that hadn't made it out of the nest after 3 days and were in danger of not making it at all. 

Charlie and Cici

The couple enjoying the view from the porch

The couple enjoying their ride

In between all this the kids had their 4 year and 2 year doctors appt which did NOT go over very well.  Charlie freaked out when the nurse brought in the 3 shots and I had to restrain him.  Both were total wimps about it and insisted that I carry them both the four long blocks to the metro.  I had been worried about Diego's language, but it seems to be progressing and beginning to put simple sentences together.  He is very behind where Charlie was at this age, but the doctor didn't seem worried and, besides, he has no problem letting us know what he needs/wants.  As for Charlie I worry about his whining and crying behavior, but again the doctor just looked at me like I was crazy.  We've been battling a lot and he seems to completely ignore me until I raise my voice which is SO annoying. 

School starts this week which has been another saga.  I'm really hoping the teacher is good....

Guatemala!

We just arrived back from a big adventure in Antigua, Guatemala.  My intent was to improve Charlie's spanish while enjoying a bit of travel myself.  We rented a house which came with a cook, house cleaners and a little pool so I was happy.  This was the first time we had been back in 5 years but the town is very much the same sleepy town with beautiful architecture and amazing gardens.  The chicken buses still spout terrible smoke which is annoying and both my mom and Charlie got a Guate stomach bug.  Overall we had a great time.  The town is surrounded by 3 volcanoes and we had a beautiful view of the Agua Volcano from the house. Volcano Fuego is active and we could see it puffing most days.  Here was our house and view of the volcano.

volcano agua from the patio

the fish man would come to our doorstep!

One of the kids' favorite thing about Antigua was getting around in tuk-tuk.  It's probably very dangerous but these ubiquitous scooter mobiles were the best way to get around.  Charlie and Diego screamed and waved every time one passed.

Charlie enrolled in a Guate preschool and then took a spanish class in the afternoon.  After the morning school we'd go get fresh squeezed orange juice and then make it home for a big lunch.  It was a very simple preschool but the kids loved him and he made a best friend named Dennis -- who he says he is going to stay in touch with by email!  The preschool - and Charlie too - marched  in the parade for Antigua Day.  Guatemalans (all of latin america?) take their parades seriously so these 3-7 year olds practiced their parade dance every day at school and came dressed in suits and gowns and stood in the heat for an hour waiting for the parade to start! (Charlie of course cried about the heat and the wait....). They marched for a block and then got on horse drawn carriages.  Here is Charlie in the parade.

 

Charlie celebrated his 4th birthday there with the craziest, largest pinata I've ever seen.  We only got the medium size - not the large size - and it was bigger than him!  We had to buy a 6 pound bag of candy to go with it.  Here are some pictures/videos from the birthday...

  

with his classmates before the smashing began!

After smashing the pinata in the kids sang to him and lined up to give him a hug!

Diego became somewhat famous in Antigua.  As you can imagine there are not many blond hair, blue eyed babies running around Guatemala so he stuck out in a serious way.  We couldn't walk a block without some one wanting to touch, hold or talk to him - it was almost as if they thought touching him would bring good luck.  He was especially famous among the indigenous mayan women who would often pop out of nowhere to pick him up.  Carlos instilled a fear of kidnapping in me so I panicked the first few times this happened. 

Our travel there and back was a bit of an adventure.  We stopped off in Fort Lauderdale for a great 24 hours of pool fun only to be followed by 24 hours of hell caused by Spirit Airlines.  I will NEVER fly on Spirit again - it's a scam airline that preys on low income people.  After 24 hours of hell we cancelled our ticket, bought an American Airlines ticket and took a cab to the Miami airport.  Coming back was also an adventure as our 'trusted' taxi driver stole our last 100 quetzales along with my mom's credit card. It left us with a bad last experience and made me realize that although I'd love to spend every summer there I don't want to be there without Carlos.  Here are some more pictures from around town: