More Snow Days

We've had a lot of snow days this year.  Although I can't stand winter, I do secretly enjoy the indoor family days.  On Thursday we got enough snow that Sandra couldn't make it here so we played and played (aka trashed the house) all day.  We started the day by finding some extra wall paint and pieces of wood from the third floor construction zone and the boys went to work painting.  From there they created a fort in the living room, but then decided a mash pit might be more fun.  They found everything soft in the entire house - every pillow, every cushion, every blanket and every stuffed animal and dumped it on the living room floor.  They launched themselves from the barren sofa into the pillow pit.  We made a fire and toasted marshmallows.  Diego couldn't remember the word marshmallow so he kept referring to roasting "marshmush" or "mushrooms."  S'mores will now forever be marshmush around here.  And of course there was sledding and snowman building/destroying.

the living room mash pit

We thought we'd take advantage of the snow to go skiing over the weekend.  Carlos found a random place in WV which felt like another world, but the people couldn't have been nicer and the kids loved it.  They loved everything - right down to those crappy little machines that swallow your quarters and only sometimes spit out terrible trinkets and trash.  Charlie put his plastic "I'm-needlessly-killing-the-environment" toys into his treasure box when he got home.  We rounded Diego's age up a bit so that we could all go tubing on Saturday.  I was certainly more scared than they were.  While Charlie and Carlos went skiing on Sunday, Diego, Sofia and I spent the day in the pool, running the hotel hallways and clearing the outside furniture of snow....It was a fun time with the exception of all sleeping in one room - mainly because of Sofia.  For some reason she is nearly impossible to sleep with in the same room.  She was literally up from midnight to 3am wanting to play.  Only when I was absolutely sure that I was going to have a nervous breakdown did she finally pass out....

Sofia in her bathing suit!!!  she looked so cute. Diego took this photo

Our version of air hockey

For Valentine's day the kids tore open cards from Grandma and then used the stickers she sent to make us cards :).  They also got to work making and decorating cookies for Carlos (and themselves).   

Charlie dressed himself and this is how he came down for Valentine's Day

 

 It is a weird feeling to see my children surpass my current ability to do something.  Granted, I am totally "unmusical" so it's not very hard to surpass my abilities on the piano....Nevertheless, it was fun to watch Charlie play piano with his teacher last week: http://youtu.be/o-rWyHlysLg (also features Sofia grunting in the background).

A few more pictures of our indoor activities.

Watching the Olympics -- and ready for those ski jumps

Family Time

We had a nice and super family-centric weekend.  We went to the Georgetown men's basketball game at the Verizon Center to cheer on Diego's classmate's father who is one of the coaches.  It was us and 13,000 other people there to cheer them on.  I didn't realize how popular these games were.  Despite our nose bleed seats, we had a lot of fun.  Charlie was super into the game, but Diego lost interest after a  half-hour and wanted to wander the corridors.  Fortunately Georgetown won.  

From there we went around the corner for Chinese food and then rounded out the experience by stopping by for the $5 psychic reading.  Although we were in Chinatown this woman was not asian and when she came to the door Carlos and I had the same impression - maybe this was a front for a prostitution ring.   She closed the door on our faces, scurried around inside and then a few minutes later opened the door again and let Carlos in first with Charlie.  Diego and I had to wait in the "waiting room" which consisted of 2 chairs in the middle of a staircase.  As the door closed, Diego looked up at me, shook his head and declared "I am NOT going in there."  For $5 she did a brief palm reading.  It turns out Carlos is going to live until he is 87 and that there is a woman in my life who is very jealous of me!!  The thought of that cracks me up.  I thought for sure Carlos paid her extra to tell me positive things about him because when I walked in with Diego (who was convinced only after I promised a treat) she told me that my husband's business will do well within 5 months.  too funny.  He insists that he didn't feed her stories to tell me....

On Sunday Charlie "chefed" with me for a while and then decided to take on his own project.  He got every spice out of the cabinet, requested flour, oil and even opened up a random jar of tamarind, added some peanuts and mixed everything together.  He got out the tart molds, we sprayed them with pam and he filled them with his special sauce.  I cooked them at 350 for about 40 minutes and viola!  We even tasted them.  Not as disgusting as I would have thought watching what went into it.  He made a recipe as well in case he wants to replicate the magic another time....

 One of the highlights of this weekend was that we got Mark to bake some bread for us.  Perhaps this is what inspired Charlie's baking - look at these beauties:

Sofia is starting to have such a big personality and, now that she can get around, she loves to be part of the action.  If she hears the boys in the living room, she'll take off and scamper through the dining room (she takes a short cut under the table) and hurries right into their business.  She likes to stand at the train table, open the drawer and systematically put everything she finds in there into her mouth.  Often she'll crawl away with some toy sticking out of the side of her mouth.  This weekend she figured out she could go through the tunnel that Diego and Charlie like to use for their forts.  She spent the next 20 minutes crawling from one side to the other and back again.  pure magic to her.

I realized that I am almost incapable at getting upset at Diego. I'm not sure why, but probably a third is because I feel badly about him being stuck in the middle, a third is because he is so adorable and a third is because when I do tell him to stop doing something he gets so sad and retreats into his room.  He randomly says the sweetest things; this weekend he turned to Carlos and said "Daddy, you are my BEST friend in the whole world."  And other times he'll just randomly declare his love for us.  I worry that, because I'm not very strict with him, he won't concentrate very hard; when we try to practice his letters he loses interest halfway through the alphabet.  I'm hoping that he'll get Ms Santora for kindergarten who is quite strict and that she'll whip him into shape given that I am incapable....

Diego after 4 rounds of Hoot Owl Hoot this weekend

Year of the Horse

This weekend we had our post-holiday holiday party to ring in the Chinese New year.  One guest came in and actually asked if one of us was Chinese which was comical for many reasons, but mostly because of how un-authentic it was....right down to the oozing chocolate fountain!  Nevertheless we had a great time seeing everyone and ended up with way too many leftovers, as usual.  The most surreal/comical/painful part of the preparation was going to the Chinese grocery store in Virginia on Chinese New Year's Eve.  Bad idea!  Me and every person of Chinese descent were fighting the narrow aisles with crappy broken grocery carts.  For good or for bad, I couldn't understand what anyone was was saying to me (cursing at me?) or any of the labels.  Oddly, all the workers were hispanic....  Try picking out the right rice wine when this is what you are faced with:

A row of various rice wines, none of which had any english on the label...

Charlie and Diego helped me pack gold coins into little red envelopes and hang them on branches I made them collect during the polar vortex.  And they cut open the 150 fortune cookies I bought which came in individual bags!!


The kids had an eventful evening as well because they had a pseudo-sleepover.  Cici came to "sleep" here until the party was over.  "sleeping" didn't seem to be one of the main activities however.  We'd go up to check on them and all three of them would be coloring by the nightlight or crammed into the closet looking for some elusive item, or parading to the bathroom to get water.....Despite my annoyance at them still pitter-pattering around at 10pm, they were pretty cute.  They wrote each other notes in case one ever moved away so they could remember each other.  Cici wrote this "Diego you rook (rock) so do you charlie" and Charlie made her a folded note with a secret note inside which was decorated with a heart.  I hope to see more of this type of behavior and less of charlie's wrestling/fighting motif.  Finally around 11pm they all crashed.

Super Bowl sunday was fun too with our chili tradition at Lisa and Toby's house.  They have this rolling betting system and Charlie seems to win every year!  This year he won $20 of which only $5 seemed to get from his father to him.  The $5 promptly went into his treasure chest as he debated what to invest the money in...most likely pokemon or baseball cards he says....Sofia enjoyed herself too because there were three pre-teen girls there who fell over themselves giving her attention.  The 11 year old gave me her number so that she could come over for a playdate with Sofia :).   

Given the cold weather, we've been visiting various museums.  My favorite is the building museum - it is the perfect amount of open space for them to run around and cool activities for all three to enjoy.  The picture on the left is a (almost) family (outline) portrait of charlie, diego and me holding Sofia.  If you stand still the tetrus blocks fill in your outline, but as soon as you move they fall down.  Clearly Charlie did the best of all of us standing still....

Sofia Crawls....

Sofia started crawling recently, but she really just wants to walk...and walk....and walk...and walk!  Her crawling is hysterically inefficient.  She scurries along laboriously, but doesn't go very fast or far.  That said, if I turn my head for a second she seems to scamper out of view and find something she shouldn't.  The walking thing is also funny and back breaking.  She desperately wants to walk - actually run - and will often refuse to sit or even stand so I  hunch over her so she can walk and I can catch her every few steps.  It makes cooking dinner or playing with Charlie and Diego totally impossible.  Here she is heading down the hallway while her brothers fight for her attention....

We had a crazy past week during which we only had 1.5 days of school. I should have taken a picture of our house at the beginning of the week compared to the end of the week.  There was MLK day and then two snow days and a half day dismissal.  The kids were very industrious at home - they used every pillow and blanket in the house to build forts that spanned various rooms.  They built about 5 lego sets, dressed up as every superhero imaginable, played every game on hand and played "store" endlessly.  "Store" entails Charlie and Diego each having a store and then going shopping at the other's store with their wads of fake money.

One of many forts around the house - complete with tunnels and all!

 

braving the polar vortex to go biking

Charlie is getting better at skating! He is actually upright!

I tried to take all three of them out sledding one afternoon and I'm really glad no one I knew saw me.  It was a total disaster.  It felt about 7 degrees outside so it literally took me 45 minutes to get the hundreds of layers on three children.  It took another 15 minutes to get Sofia, with her multiple layers, to fit into the ergo.  The hill at Garfield park nearby should be perfect for sledding, but it's actually totally impossible.  One run shoots the kids straight into the street; the second run ensures they hit a fence and the third run is so far from the stairs that it takes forever to get set-up.  There is a barricade at the top so there is no way to get ready before heading down which meant that I had to hold the sled while charlie climbed on.  Sounds okay except that I'm on the other side of the barricade with a baby strapped to me so I was basically lying down on the sidewalk on top of Sofia with my arms stretched under the wall while Charlie slipped and squirmed his way onto the sled.  At least half the time he'd only get half on before he slipped off and I lost the sled.  Diego refused to participate in the madness so he was probably the best off of all of us.  Despite the fact that I saw the outing as sheer pain, Charlie enjoyed it so much that he was devastated when I decided I couldn't be prostrate on the sidewalk with commuters stepping over me while Sofia looked on helplessly.

Diego has been really sweet recently and comical.  The other day he woke me up by saying "mom, it's 7, 8 past 1 so it's time to get up."  "really, Diego, 7, 8 past 1?" "yes."  I've been feeling badly about focusing only on sports and no art classes so at night I draw them each a picture for them to color in while I read to them.  The other day Diego insisted that he was doing a great job, but wondered I could find him a "coloring-in class."  He is especially fond of purple and colors with it so much that we've run out of ink a few times.  He hasn't quite got the 'ink' thing yet so at first he'd say "I think this pen is running out of gas."  Charlie corrected him so he now says "I think this pen is running out of gink."  It makes perfect sense to me and I hope he doesn't stop saying it.

Diego "chefing" with me

Diego trying to teach Sofia how to swing

This weekend we had a fun SAIS wedding.  Sarah Rotman got married at a church on the Hill and the reception included an incredible piano performance by her father.  In typical Carlos fashion, he decided that before the wedding he REALLY needed to install a dimmer light so below is a picture of him in a suit and a headlamp prior to heading to the church.  I was a sorry sight as I got the big vein on my left leg removed (thanks to sofia) the day before.  I had to hide three layers of bandages under a very long dress that Carlos kept stepping on!  Nevertheless we had a great time and always nice to catch up with the SAIS team.

2014

Not much has happened since our trip so I thought I'd take stock on where the kids are as they start 2014.

Charlie is becoming a boy, boy, but is still very sweet. He loves everything related to sports, though he still mainly likes to just play soccer, swimming, baseball and kickball.  He likes me to read him the sports pages in the newspaper and would be happy to go see a game of anything.  He finally seems to like playing with boys more than girls.  A little too much for my taste....There seems to be a lot of wrestling and battling these days.  He loves lego and is currently scheming to make an entire lego city.  We've literally spent whole days building various lego sets.  He is diligent and will practice piano or practice writing, but not always happily.  I signed him up for skating lessons with a friend of his who is much better on ice skates (in fact Charlie doesn't know how to skate at all) but he dutifully did the lesson; it was tough to watch so I can't imagine how hard it was for him. He fell on his butt so many times and the teacher's tough love attitude meant she never once helped him up.  He got up every time and kept going and only when I met him on the side after the class did the tears start flowing.  That's Charlie.  He takes very good care of his brother and sister.  They fight, but in general, Charlie looks out for Diego.  My favorite thing now is watching him learn to read - it is such a fun process to witness.  He can read Frog and Toad stories by himself now and we promised him any lego set he can dream up when he reads a whole Jack and Annie Magic Tree House chapter book by himself.

Charlie organizing our bathroom closet

Diego - my little peanut - can be as cute and sweet as ever....when he chooses to be.  He can be so charming that it melts my heart - like when he tells me that we are "chefing" when we make banana bread together; or when he says "mommy, I love you so much...will you come play with me?" or when he gives me the biggest, tightest hugs when we say goodnight. When he hears Sofia wake up he runs into her room and sits next to her crib talking to her.  But often he is trying to find his own space in the family which ends up with him in tears or us frustrated.  He waits patiently while we drag him along to Charlie's classes and contentedly plays by himself often.  He adores Sofia, but can be rough with her.  He won't jump into activities so getting him to join a class without Charlie is nearly impossible.  Unlike Charlie, he doesn't love school and would rather stay home playing with his toys.  He seems to have stopped crying a lot at drop-off, but he still gets sad and tries to hold it inside.  He puts his head down and his whole body seems to whimper - it hurts my heart to see.  We tried to get the boys one big bed to share and kept a little mattress under the bed for guests.....but Diego insists on sleeping in the little bed on the floor.  It drives me nuts.  I hate the idea of him putting himself in the little bed.  I suppose we'll be getting rid of the big and little bed and investing in bunk beds.

Sofia is proving to have quite a personality.  She has just started crawling and wants badly to walk, but is tentative.  I had thought she'd be walking by 10 months, but may need to revise that guess.  She can pull herself up and most mornings I find her standing in her crib waiting for me.  When she wants to stand (which is often) there is NOTHING you can do to get her to sit.  She stays stiff as a board and won't bend at the waist.  It's almost comical.  If I absolutely have to put her down when she is in a standing mood I need to lie her down because she will not bend to sit down.  When she doesn't get what she wants or if I take something away from her she looks right at me, clenches her fist and screams at me.  It's kindof funny and kindof scary.  She is also very charming - she smiles, waves hi and bye and has a flexing party trick.  With little prompting she'll put her fists over her head and flex - sometimes so much so that she turns red.  She loves to nurse and would much prefer to sleep next to me.  She can easily sleep from 7pm-7am, but sometimes chooses not to!

The house - Carlos' baby - is, as always, under construction.  My office is still being converted to an office/guest suite.  We've yet to finish the shelves in the living room and now Carlos is dreaming of better sound proofing for the basement when the tenants move out....

where my desk SHOULD be....

the guest bathroom

the deck....someday....