A Full House

My friend Susanna was in town this week (her and her family moved to New York last year) so I hosted a lunch for several friends to get together. We hadn't seen Susanna since she left and she has since had a precious baby girl (Ellie, 3 months old). Her son, Micah is 7-months younger than Diego so they couldn't really play together a year ago, but the age gap gets smaller as they grow older. Diego was just thrilled to have so many friends over. There were 5 mommies and 8 (EIGHT!!) children. It is great that the big kids are at the age now where we can just let them run free through the house and know that they pretty much keep themselves out of trouble. They spent the first couple hours in the playroom and then headed to Diego's room to play.

The gang!

From left to right: Susanna with Micah and Ellie, Jana with MaraKate, Me with Diego & Alexia, Vanessa with Michaela and Kim with Josh and Rachel

Micah giving Diego a big hug!

After a great lunch we enjoyed a delicious cake (baked by Kim) and coffee.

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Diego and Mara Kate really stuck together - it was neat to see much they enjoy each other's company

Don't tell Mara Kate's daddy that she gave Diego a smooch :)

Visit from Grammie

My mom was here with us all of last week and we had a very productive week. Ricardo was in London the whole week so we took care of a lot of projects around the house, errands, shopping, cooking and cleaning.
I wish I would've taken more pictures because Grammie and Diego did so many things together. One day they spent several hours assembling a chest of drawers for his room and he loved it. He was very proud to use his own tools and did just what Grammie told him - screw this, hammer that - he did great. Another day they spent the morning in the kitchen, making cookies. He was amazing. He was engaged for several hours and even decorated ALL the cookies almost by himself.
Ricardo returned Friday evening and him and I met downtown for a date which was a lot of fun.
Diego was very happy to see Ricardo on Saturday morning, but Alexia was absolutely giddy. He went to pick her up from her crib and she giggled and clung on to him tight. He brought her to me so I could nurse her and when he put her down, she started to cry and scream until he picked her up again. She laid her head on his shoulder and just cuddled with him and really expressed to him that she had missed him - it was precious.



Helping Grammie measure out the flour


He loved rolling out the dough and cutting the cookies


I went out to do errands while they frosted the cookies so there are no pictures of them in action, but here is the finished product...he did ALL of these cookies.


Here's a close-up so you can see the detail of his frosting job.


I have been wanting to get a picture of the famous "green car" from Publix. This is how the kids and I do our grocery shopping every week. They each have a steering wheel and sit next to each other and usually get through the whole round of shopping without bugging each other.


Can you tell who loves his baby sister?!




We had a family BBQ on Saturday afternoon. This is Diego eating a......HOT DOG! Yes, that's right, I let him have a hot dog :)


Playing tee-ball - he hits the ball like a pro!


Alexia hanging out in the exersaucer, watching her brother play ball

Starting the week off right!

Mondays are usually our day of groceries, errands, cleaning and work. But yesterday we started our week off in such a fun way. Our friends Nina and Deven came over for a 6-hour playdate and we had a blast. Deven is 6 months younger than Diego, but they have a lot of fun playing together. Alexia also enjoyed playing with the boys. After we all had lunch together we put all three kids down for a nap at the same time which worked out really well. Nina and I had almost 2 hours of grown up time which was such a treat. We drank coffee and tea, ate cake and enjoyed each other's company. Once the kids were awake, we played inside for awhile and then set them loose in the yard. Alexia hung out in her exersaucer while the boys rode their tricycles.


Alexia played right next to the boys and they were sweet enough to pass her a tractor

Standing up

Just wanted to quickly share pictures of Alexia in her preferred position. I thought she would take awhile to walk, but I think she may be on the move sooner than we expect. She stands up wherever she can and is even trying to stand up on her own, without holding onto anything. I had to carry her through Target yesterday because she was sitting behind the handle bars in the shopping cart and she kept trying to stand up (and she was buckled in!) I sternly told her "No!" and tapped her leg, but she did not want to sit down. So then I had Diego sit behind the handlebars and sat her inside the cart...and of course, she stood up. Grocery shopping may be challenging for the next couple of months!
Another development of hers (that I am not happy about) is that she is dropping her morning nap. I lay her down every morning for her nap and it has almost been two weeks since she's fallen asleep. I need that time to shower and get ready so I just leave her in her crib for 40-60 minutes and she cries, talks, plays, cries some more and eventually gets to come out.

Here she is!