Overnight Fun

So the last post was from our special bowling night. I don't like to post that Ricardo is out of town when he is gone, but now that he is back I can say that the reason we had gone bowling was because he was traveling to London for 6 days so we had decided to have a special outing. He had a good week of work while he was away and we had a very busy week at home. We were so happy to have him back this Saturday! We had a great family BBQ on Saturday evening to celebrate his return and the kids were thrilled to have him home. Alexia was completely attached to him and would NOT let him go. She cried if I tried to give her food or change her diaper or do anything with her. She only wanted her Papi.
This Tuesday we spent the whole morning at the doctor and the kids were superstars. We were there from 9:45 to 12:15 because I had a prenatal appointment and Diego had a sick visit with his doctor. They were so cooperative and really made it easy on me.
On Tuesday afternoon Jana and Mara Kate arrived around 4pm. The kids were so excited for their arrival and were waiting in the upstairs living room, just waiting for the doorbell to ring. Jana is pregnant with a girl and is due just 3 days after me so it was really fun to hang out and talk pregnancy and babies :) We headed outside to play in the yard and when Ricardo got home we all headed over to Home Depot to look at trees. Ricardo wants to buy several trees for the yard so we went to do some initial research. From there we headed to La Fonda Latina for dinner and had a great time. It was such a beautiful afternoon that we were even able to sit outside on the terrace to eat. We returned home to play for a short while and all three kids were in bed by 8:30pm. Jana and I stayed up eating ice cream and chatting until 10:30 and then headed to bed ourselves. It was so special to have them here overnight and to wake up and know we had friends to have breakfast with!



Alexia being her sweet and happy self on the chair while the big kids played


Blasting rockets into the yard to chase


They enjoyed exploring the plants, trees and herbs at Home Depot

Our 28-week belly bumps at La Fonda!

Having fun in the backseat of the car

Mara Kate and Alexia sat together to have waffles Wednesday morning

Yesterday Diego and Alexia were fighting over a plastic golf club and Alexia was trying to take it out of his hands. I took the golf club away and told them that if they couldn't' play nicely, nobody could have it. I threw it on my bed and walked away. Diego said, "Mami, you're acting like us." I couldn't' help it but burst into laughter and he did too. He was so right. I did not have a good attitude and I was so glad he was able to recognize that.
The kids like to narrate to their baby brother what is going on. Today I was changing Alexia's diaper and Diego put his mouth next to my belly and said "Marco, mami esta cambiando el panal de Alexia. Ella es tu big sister y tiene 2 anios." (Marco, mom is changing Alexia's diaper. She is your big sister and she's two.) They love to talk to him, give him toys (they put toys on my belly for him) and tell him that they're excited for him to be born. It really warms my heart to know their excitement for his arrival and makes me even more excited to have him here!

This morning we went to the library and checked out 24 books. We always have a list of books that they want before we arrive. Today they wanted books about airplanes, snakes and race cars. We always spend the most time in the non-fiction section getting books to learn about things, not so much storybooks. I always throw a selection of storybooks into our bag since they do love having them once we get home. Diego has not stopped flipping pages in the books since we got home over an hour ago.

BOWLING!

Ricardo wanted to do something special with the kids yesterday afternoon so he suggested we all go bowling together. It was such a blast! Diego couldn't contain his excitement when we told him where we were going and was in complete amazement when we entered the bowling alley, as was Alexia. They were super excited to put on the special shoes (so sweet that they had their sizes!) and get to the game. Their balls were size xxsmall, but they were still quite heavy for their age. Diego was able to pick it up and carry it, but Alexia needed help. They raised the bumpers on the lanes so the balls wouldn't go straight to the gutters and they even had a metal ramp that we put in front of the lane on Alexia's turns so she could roll the ball down. Diego was on cloud nine the entire time we were there and probably could have kept playing for another three hours. We ordered dinner there and ate between turns and just had a really special evening!

Baby bump at 27 weeks!

I loved the stance they took to watch the ball! They stood like this almost every time a bowl was rolled. The metal thing in front of Alexia is her little ramp. Check out Alexia's shoes!

Waiting for their ball to come up.

A self-timer family shot

Ricardo returned home from London a week from Friday and the kids were soooooo happy to have him home! They sat with him under the blanket for a really long time, just cuddling up and enjoying being next to him.

Valentine's Hearts

I know Valentine's Day was a month ago, but I wanted to share some sweet quotes from Diego. For Ricardo's present we made him a tin with hearts inside. For several days in a row, throughout the day, I asked Diego "Why do you love Papa?" and I wrote his reponses on the hearts for Ricardo. I wrote out several of my own hearts and Alexia responded a few times with sweet words of her own.
Here are a few of Diego's quotes:
- "Cuz I give him a lot of kisses and he gives me a lot of kisses"
- "Porque es el mas grande de la familia. Y Dios es el mas grande del mundo" (Because he is the biggest one in the family and God is the biggest one in the world")
- "I love Papa porque me cuida y a veces viene temprano" (because he takes care of me and sometimes comes home early)
- "Yo amo a Papa porque le encanta la nieve" (I love Papa because he loves the snow")
- "Cuz he loves me"
And Alexia:
- "Cuddles"
- "Porque si" (just because)
- "I love Papi!"
Ricardo pulled out the tin this evening and read through all the hearts and they made us smile.

We are doing great and have been keeping busy this past week. Today we had a wonderfully relaxing day as a family and look forward to hanging out together again tomorrow! Ricardo's work has been extremely demanding lately so we truly savor our weekends together!!

Puppet Show

Today we woke up to rain which eventually turned into snow...lots and lots of snow. It is now 4pm and the rain is back and the snow is melting, but our backyard is still white. It's hard to believe that it is this cold...in Atlanta...in March!
It turned out that the activity we had planned for today was perfect for a cold, winter day. We went to the Center for Puppetry Arts downtown for a fabulous puppet show with Lucy, Archer and Winnie. It was called Rainforest Adventure and completely captivated the kids for the entire 45 minutes. Alexia sat on my lap and Diego by my side and they LOVED it. The puppets are life-size so it is so much fun to see the detail and artistic skill of everything. There was no storyline they had to follow, they just enjoyed the excitement of seeing the exotic animals and plants. After the show we had our picnic lunch in the lunchroom and then headed upstairs to a puppet workshop so the kids could make their own puppets which were a huge hit. We then explored the puppet museum and all four kids were amazed at all the puppets. We will definitely be heading back there again - we loved it!

The puppet workshop

The kids showing off their puppets. Winnie is just 18-months so she didn't make a puppet, but loved being right next to the big kids while they did theirs. (Is Alexia really now part of the BIG KIDS!?!?!?!)

The museum had a really neat area where the kids could control the puppets

Alexia making shadow puppets

Diego making a silly shadow puppet

Thought this was a cool shot of the four kids in front of the mirror (The big kids are maneuving a massive praying mantis)

I ordered a few "school" supplies last week and Diego has been excited to open them. We were just about to do some "school" when Alexia woke up from her nap so she joined in and loved it.

I had them sort all of the bears by color into the cups. It was a no-brainer for Diego, but it was fun to see how Alexia was challenged and really enjoyed it.

Diego did really well doing several different patterns.

The pegboard was also a hit. He enjoyed sorting by color and making towers

Times of the World

As many of you know, Diego loves numbers. His new interest is times around the world. He has learned that there are many different time zones around the world and he always wants to know what time it is in certain places. This all began because his buddy Israel now lives in Bosnia and he always wanted to call her and I would have to explain that sometimes she was asleep when he was awake and vice versa. So, he began asking what time it is in Bosnia at least 25 times a day - no joke. He has now added many places to his list of interest and they include:
Bosnia, Madagascar, El Salvador, Clifford (Canada), San Francisco, Washington, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Paraguay, Florida, China, London, Boston, Africa, Paris...and that is all I can think of right now, but I know there are a few more. He asks the times of these different places so many times a day that I can't even keep track. It probably won't be too long and he will have all the time differences memorized!