Tio Charlie comes to visit

Sofia's version of dress-up:

This past weekend tio Charlie came to visit and the kids were beyond happy.  Sofia only wanted him to hold her and wouldn't let me even get close.  I need to teach her the word "TIO" because she kept referring to Charlie as 'daddy.'  The boys definitely liked wrestling and climbing on him, but their favorite was the marble maze structure he built.  Diego got QB Maze for Christmas and we've all been a little annoyed at how easily it falls down - especially when you have a little person at table height constantly swiping her hands in search of something she can destroy.  The box has a picture of a terrific structure, but when I took one look at the directions to build it I closed it immediately.  It looked worse than Ikea instructions.  The next thing I knew tio Charlie was halfway through building it.  Check it out:

The kids were uber-impressed and quite taken with it.  That of course meant their little hands frequently touching it and fighting over it, which meant that pieces started getting knocked off and within a couple of days the whole thing came crashing down and a lot of tears were shed.  Charlie's friend was over and decided he wanted to switch one of the pieces....that piece happened to be a bottom piece and that was the end of the maze.  Looks like we need to get tio Charlie back here to build it again.

We've been having a lot of conversations about the future - mainly because of all the news of restructuring at Coke and because of the kids' education.  You mix the fact that it has been about 2 months of not knowing if I would have a job with Carlos' recent appointment to the PTA board and you get a whole lot of "strategic planning!"  I can't say we have gotten very far.  Some one sent me their life plan template which was interesting, but seemed to make more sense to use when you are just starting a life together...not three kids into marriage....

The conversation seems even more tangible given that some friends are leaving the Hill this week to move to southern California.  The movers took all their stuff last week so they have been staying in our apartment downstairs and we love having them here.  It made me realize how nice it would be to live next door to people we actually like!  We've been sharing child care and taking the kids to/from school - and having a built in playdate is priceless.  Charlie told me that we were SO lucky to have Luca and Mila living downstairs and I totally agree!

Ode to Sofia...and Thanks to Diego

Carlos says I spoil Sofia too much.  I'm pretty sure he said that about Charlie and Diego too, but Sofia is likely my last little baby and my only girl so I do spend a lot of time admiring her.  She is by far the most feisty baby we have had and the most strong-willed.  90% of the time I love that about her and admire what a strong person she will be.  The other 10% of the time I want to jump out a window.  The percentages may be reversed for Carlos.  I think Diego deserves some credit, because if he were not my bag of sugar- if he were as challenging as Sofia - I think we might have stopped at two kids.  But Diego was the sweetest baby.  It is hard for me to think that this summer he will turn 5 because he is still my little baby.

Sofia loves to sing and dance.  She sings constantly (usually no real words - just sounds she puts together) and loves to dance.  She especially likes to lead everyone in a dance routine.  She'll put the phone on the floor and gather everyone she can into a circle and make everyone dance. No one is allowed to stand on the sidelines.

Sofia also really likes dress up.  She likes to put on everyone's shoes - the bigger the better.  She likes to put on the boys' clothes and even non-clothing items like dish towels.  She tries to put on her own clothes but usually ends up with both legs in one leg hole or shirts pulled over her legs and up to her waist.  The most uncomfortable is when she puts on her underwear with both legs go in one leg hole. It looks like a terrible mini-skirt.  Doesn't matter how uncomfortable it is - she won't let you help her fix it.  Stubborn for sure.

Although she still doesn't talk that much (mainly just screams to get her point across), she catches onto other things quickly.  She basically potty trained herself and likes to show off about it.  She makes visitors come watch her go pee.

And finally, she basically rules the household. It may be because we are trying to avoid her screeching, but what she wants is what happens.  She'll run up to the boys and wag her finger at them, rambling nonsense and then finish with "k?" - as if to ensure they understood her orders.  She'll then march off confidently, sure that they are following her directions.  Poor Diego gets the brunt of her physical attacks; if she feels someone is not listening to her, not following her orders or not giving her what she wants - she goes in for her lethal grab.  I guess Diego isn't too big to intimidate her so she'll grab him so hard and he can't get her to release him.  He just whimpers until we get her to let go.  Mark came over recently and nicknamed her Hurricane Sofia which seems very apt.  We are often left reeling in her wake....Nevertheless, I think she is so amazing and I admire her so much...at least 90% of the time...

Holiday Catch-up

It feels like it was just Thanksgiving!  We had a wonderful Christmas in Philadelphia - full of fun cousin time, yummy food, gingerbread and cookie decorating and lots of presents.  Although there were no tears on Christmas day, there were plenty when we left Philly to head home on Friday. The emotional high of Christmas left an emotional low in its wake.  Charlie and Diego were both so sad to leave. Sofia was also screaming and crying as we rolled out of town - but I think that was due to three days of no naps!

In addition to some little gingerbread houses for Charlie and Diego, we made a big gingerbread house for all the cousins to decorate.  I think they must have used about 5 lbs of candy decorating the thing.  It was an impressive collective effort.   I'm glad Christmas was fun because our attempt at holiday spirit events didn't seem to work well. Twice we went to the National Christmas tree in search of Santa in his workshop and twice we were told that an emergency at the North Pole has caused them to close shop.  I was so annoyed and the kids were so disappointed that it really got us out of the Christmas spirit.  Then we battled traffic to go see the two million Holiday Lights in a nearby park.  The kids were not impressed.  Then we went to Zoo Lights but it was so crowded you could barely move and the kids totally melted down.  Strike Three!

Diego hard at work on his house

The little gingerbread houses on display

The large gingerbread house featured a sleigh, a reindeer, santa head first down the chimney and about 5 lbs of candy

In Philadelphia, we must have been a pretty funny sight collectively.  I got knee surgery on the 23rd so I was hobbling around, Tio Charlie had all four wisdom teeth so he was like a chipmunk eating mush and Kristen looks like she should have popped a month ago.   The car ride to Philly was the most comical. I got knee surgery at 9am that morning and then we packed the car crazy full, shoved me in some how in the back with my leg propped up and took off for Philly.  No one could move.

It turned out that the knee pain I was having was a torn meniscus, not runner's knee and I had wasted two months in physical therapy for a wrong diagnosis.  Finally an MRI showed a bad tear which I had suspected from the beginning.  Unfortunately I found out on December 15th so I didn't have time for a 2nd opinion if I wanted to get surgery done in 2014 (deductible!).  Double unfortunately that week there was a big article on the front of the metro section of the Post about surgery centers as unregulated money making ventures and it featured the place I was heading. I was so paranoid I could barely sleep the night before and told the anesthesiologist that what I was most worried about was not my knee, but rather waking up to see my children.  She looked at me like I was crazy and that was about the last thing I remember until a nurse was helping me in post-op and told me how I kept mumbling on about the Washington Post article and how Joan Rivers died at a surgery center...oh dear. They must get some funny information from people going under...

The kids wait patiently on the stairs before going into open presents

Santa brought Diego pickles from Brooklyn! his favorite!!

Santa outfitted Charlie with LOTS of Nats gear

Sofia wasted no time in learning how to enjoy opening presents

Before Christmas, Charlie and his friend Ian caught 50 catches!  Their goal is 100, at which point I promised to have a big baseball themed party to celebrate.  We decided to have a mini-celebration for 50 catches and so I planned a fun afternoon, including a trip to the movies.  I hadn't been to the movies in so long that I had sticker shock and was equally shocked by the number of previews.  Nevertheless they enjoyed Big Hero 6 and I thought it was actually a fun encouragement for Charlie's interest in robotics.  That's an overstatement, but he asked Santa for only one thing this year: a DRONE!  First he asked me to get it, but I said I didn't have enough money so he turned to Santa instead.  Santa opted for a toy quadcopter, but cool nonetheless!

And finally - our belated Holiday Card!  http://bit.ly/taftvazquezhappyholidays2014

Thanksgiving

The holidays mean trains at the Botanic Garden!

A little late here...We had a super nice Thanksgiving.  Carlos' mom and sister were here as well as a very important extra guest: Quita!  Quita is about a 1.5 feet long and probably weighs less than Sofia.  Yes - she is a dog and the kids couldn't get enough of her.  They chased her around the house, poking, prodding, hugging and pulling at her.  Poor dog.  At one point I was in the kitchen cooking and Sofia was quietly playing at the train table in the living room when Quita walked in.  Sofia erupted into squeals of "doggie, doggie, doggie," her arms flailed wildly and she ran as fast as she could towards Quita.  Luckily Quita is bit faster and could escape her grasps.  The entire visit was like that!    They didn't tire of Quita at all, but the poor dog was certainly tired of them.

Quita wasn't the only excitement.  The kids loved having Veronika and Abuela here and they seem to have as much energy as the kids. They took the kids rock climbing which was a highlight especially for Charlie.  And Tia Mary came in for Thanksgiving dinner which was lucky because without her expertise, I think the turkey and I would have just spent most of the day staring at each other.  It was a delicious meal and just nice to be together.

Of course there were a few mishaps.  Like when I fed Carlos something that gave him his worst allergic reaction to date.  His eyes were so swollen he could barely see and his whole mid-section was covered in hives.  It was terrible and the swelling lasted more than 24 hours.  Or how we went on our annual pilgrimage to the Middleburg Christmas tree farm and spent an hour roaming the farm in the bitter cold only to decide that there was no tree for us there.  As if in revenge, our car died and needed a jump.  Carlos went down the road to a tree stand and found a great looking tree in about 2 minutes!  On top of all that we gave Veronika and Abuela whatever terrible illness we've been passing around. Despite all that, it was a nice Thanksgiving.

Philadelphia weekends

We were in Philadelphia two weekends in a row - once for my 20th high school reunion and then again for my mom's birthday.  Both weekends were a lot of fun.  The first weekend was dominated by GA/PC day which included a full day of sports events between the rival high schools.  Charlie in particular loved it.  After four hours of watching and playing I decided it was time to go home, but Charlie called my dad every 5 minutes for updates to the game.  Luckily GA won overall.

GA Patriot helping Sofia from a fall...she wasn't happy about him...

We were back in Philly the next weekend for my mom's birthday and the cousins played SO hard ALL weekend.  My favorite was the fort they built under grandma's bed.  They dragged pillows, blankets, books and even a reading light under her bed and put snakes, dolls and other 'scary' things under her blanket to frighten her.  They posted signs all over the house announcing the fort and then were determined to sleep there.  Diego was the first to jump ship and head to his own bed, but Charlie, Wallis and Eli curled up under the bed for awhile.  Only when Eli decided the floor was too uncomfortable did the crew give up and go to bed. Of course no trip to Grandma's house would be complete without digging in the dirt!  Despite the cold, they diligently worked on mud pies which then froze into mud popsicles.

mud popsicles

watching rocko from the backdoor

They also loved playing at the field house at GA.  The huge indoor (and empty!) space allowed us to play football, baseball, rock climbing, pitt jumping, do races and whatever else we could think of to burn calories.  No one wanted to leave when Sunday night arrived.

As for my highschool reunion, a lot of people looked exactly the same, but others I couldn't recognize at all.  Despite only being there for 2 years and the fact that most people I actually liked were in the class above me, it was still fun to connect with people after 20 years.  Many of them were "lifers" having attended from kindergarten through 12th grade so for at least half of my junior year I remember feeling like a major outsider.  If it weren't for sports and Ron Gonen I don't think anyone would have even talked to me.  I was particularly excited to see Chad Peacock who has been chronicling his survival of brain cancer.  http://thebrainchancery.com/

Halloween

I found some one who loves Halloween more than me!  Charlie's friend had the whole neighborhood over for a Halloween party which featured a pumpkin vomiting spinach dip, graveyard bean dip, intestine shaped bread, brain shaped jello and syringe-filled jello shots.  Charlie was the Hulk and couldn't have been more pleased with himself.  Diego went with Thor, but refused to wear the wig or helmet I got him.  Sofia was meant to be a mummy, but didn't like being wrapped up in ace bandages and I was a zombie (aka mother of my 3 monsters).  Charlie couldn't get enough of trick-or-treating and insisted on hitting East Capitol once our neighborhood was tapped out.  Diego opted to come home and hand out candy.  We don't get a lot of kids so we had to catcall people off the streets to come by.  Nevertheless, they both seemed happy.  They have been oddly civilized about their candy stash.  We converted their closet into an office/reading nook. I did it because my closet was my office growing up and I loved it.  They keep their buckets of candy in their office and sort through it every now and then, but haven't been very focused on eating it.

 We had parent teacher conferences and both teachers were really impressive with how much detail and thought they put into evaluating Charlie and Diego's progress.  Ms Sadowsky and her co-teacher adore Diego, but she had a very astute observation about Diego having a hard time recovering from disagreements; he doesn't forgive easily.  Carlos and I both laughed because she could have been describing Carlos.  I'm not sure if it is a personality trait or if it has to do with being the younger brother, but Diego certainly does seem to take any disagreement extremely personally.  He'll whimper and sulk off to be by himself.  Charlie gets vocally upset, but then it quickly dissipates - much more like me!  Charlie will get upset, go up to his room for 2-3 minutes and then come back, give us a hug and move on.  Diego won't.  Diego also has a strange need to ask to play with others.  If Charlie has a friend over, Diego wants me to ask if he can play with them instead of just jumping in.  It is the same with kickball games - he'll want me to ask if he can play.
I went with Diego's class to the top of the Washington Monument - very cool! I can't believe we hadn't gone before!  The mom of another student in the class was in charge of repairing the monument after the earthquake so she came along and showed the class pictures and where we could spot the cracks.

Despite our concerns about the class composition, Ms Isaacson tried to assure us that Charlie (or Carlos as they call him in call now) is doing well.  She commented that Charlie  likes things to be perfect so he'll erase whole sections of his work and revise and revise it. AH! sounds like Carlos again! Did I put anything into this gene pool?!  She says that he is super well behaved in class, but we've been observing some poor behavior recently.  It just feels like all boy, all the time.  He likes to put on sunglasses and rock out to music that is on the edge of what I can stand.  

Fun Fall Weather

The weather has been amazing and so we've been enjoying being outside.  We could actually carve pumpkins outside with Charlie and Diego's friends which was awesome except that Sofia kept trying to steal the knives.

Here is Charlie with his crew at the park last weekend.  It was so cute to see them go from equipment to equipment in a little happy herd.



.  We've had a week of late nights - mainly due to the World Series.  Charlie was desperate to watch part of the games and thanks to Tia Veronika, they were outfitted with Giants gear.  Clearly they are fair-weather fans.  Charlie told me that he now wants to play for the Giants first and THEN move to the Nationals....

We also had a comical late night trip this week to the Patriot Center to see Disney on Ice.  Our friend organized the special outing so the kids could all hang out, but getting to Fairfax on a weekday at 6pm is a recipe for disaster. And disaster it was!!  It took us almost an hour to get there in traffic and then the parking was insane and the lot we got hustled into turned out to be a mile walk from the center.  We rolled in about 45 minutes late. Getting out proved to be just as much of a disaster.  Diego couldn't deal with the bathroom wait and ended up having an accident so I changed him into pants.  We left and 5 minutes later Charlie tells me that he has to go pee so I tell him to find a tree...He does and then starts wailing....somehow in the process he ALSO managed to have an accident....so I changed him.  We walk the mile back to our car and then SAT in the parking lot for another 30 minutes before we could actually get out.  Seriously - I am never going to Disney on Ice again!  As you can see, the traffic and all didn't seem to phase them and they were happy as could be:


Diego started soccer class with other pre-k 4 kids and it has been wonderful for him.  I'm so happy to see him really like an activity because usually we have to bribe him to get him to do classes.  The first day he finished sweaty, red-faced and proudly told me that he scored "ALL the goals."  Charlie is the "assistant coach" and he verified that Diego indeed did score all the goals.  Being the assistant coach has been key to get Charlie to practice tying shoes.  He has been so lazy about it until this.  He is taking his role very seriously and thinks that he needs to be able to tie the shoes of the pre-k 4 kids.

We were asked to host a Literary Feast last weekend and because it sounded like a nice thing to do and because I'm not good at saying no, we did.  Carlos' wasn't shy about asking me his favorite question: "Is this really the best use of your time?"  It is a loaded question and is also code for don't-ask-me-to-do-anything-for-this.  We did a Gabrial Garcia Marquez themed dinner and it ended up being more work than our usual holiday party even though it was only for 20 people.  Given that people we paying a good amount of money to attend, I felt like I needed to make it nice.  Luckily Cici's mom co-hosted it with me and her Brazilian husband made everyone happy with strong caparinhas.  It was delightful, but very random to have 20 strangers in our house. Some of them refused to leave!  Of course, in my haste to get things ready while Sofia was screaming and Diego came home from a Halloween party with blood oozing out of a gash next to his eye, I forgot to take pictures.  Not sure we'll do it again next year....maybe just attend one!

The question of "is this really the best use of my time" has gotten me thinking, especially given the announcement that Coke is doing major restructuring.  This photo that some one recently tagged me in on FB also has me thinking.  Santa Barbara Middle School - I'd like my kids to go to this school.  What's the best use of my time to make that happen?

I'm in the bottom left and not smiling