On the move

Our sweet, precious Marco is officially crawling. Yesterday he took his very first "crawl." In the early afternoon he took two little crawls and then would flop down on to his belly. By the time Ricardo came home from work, we put him on the floor and he he inched forward 3 or 4 times. I think it will be a few days before he is crawling all around, all the time, but it is so fun to see him move. And he is very clearly saying "mama" and it is the sweetest thing ever!!! Diego and Alexia's first word was "papa" so I am excited to hear this sweet word come from the lips of this little guy. He says it over and over a lot through the day and it just melts my heart. We've had a very mellow week as Diego has been sick. On Monday we went to the doctor and he has strep so is on antibiotics. After the doctor we went to Trader Joes and then home. On Tuesday we were home all day except for a quick trip to the salon for Alexia. Today will be our first time really getting out and we are going to go to playgroup at church which we are all so excited about!

Haircuts for Alexia and Marco

Ricardo has been asking to cut Marco's hair for a few weeks now and I officially protested up until Saturday. I finally realized that he was right and Marco's hair was getting a little wild. We don't like hair over the ears or mullets, so it was time to save our sweet baby from both. Ricardo sat him on his lap and took the buzzer to his head. He did so well and was quite the champ. I need to get some good "after" shots, but he looks absolutely adorable. I am so thankful for a husband who takes a genuine interest in the grooming of the children and does an awesome job keeping it up. Alexia has also been long overdue for a haircut. I'm sure you have noticed that she rarely wears a clip in her hair and her eyes are often covered by her hair. Don't think it doesn't drive me crazy...it does! She hates having anything in her hair and her hair is so fine and her scalp is so delicate, that I can't blame her. I finally took her to my salon (again, at Ricardo's request) and asked them to give her a cut that will keep the hair out of her eyes. She was so excited and I absolutely love how it turned out! The "before" shot Diego came down with strep throat this weekend so he is still a little low on energy. He just wanted to sit in the chairs and watch. He has been on antibiotics and fever-free for over 24 hours so I figured it was fine to take him out. She received special treatment with the roll brush and hair dryer. She loved it. I love how this picture captures the pensive boy in Diego and the spunky girl in Alexia How cute is she!?!?!

Opera and park day

Today Ruth and I took the kids to a children's performance of The Pirates of Penzance at the Atlanta Opera. It was a great show and Diego and Anjuli loved it. Alexia and Keona cried in hysterics with the pirate's first "AAAARRRGGHHHH!" and Ruth and I had to go running to the front to scoop them up and bring them back to our seats with us. After the show we went to the park for some great play time and a picnic lunch.
Diego went home with them for a special playdate which he absolutely loved. I brought Alexia and Marco home and since Marco slept the whole time we were at home, Alexia and I had some special time together. We had a pretend tea party, she had a bath, we read books, made dinner, folded laundry and enjoyed our girl time!


Callen and Marco getting ready for the picnic

Sweetwater Creek

On Saturday afternoon, we headed to one of our favorite spots for a nature walk. Marco took his nap in the baby bjorn while Ricardo took the kids exploring in the water. It was a wonderful afternoon and we all had a blast.

Ricardo taught Diego how to skip rocks and Diego was thrilled when he was able to skip several rocks in a row!

Refreshed after his nap!

Chattanooga, con't

On Saturday, we had a slow start and headed to the incline railway to ride to the top of Lookout Mountain. The kids thought it was great and the views were amazing.

We had the most wonderful walk once we arrived to the top. All three kids took turns in the stroller since Ricardo and I just wanted to walk, walk, walk.

I can't believe the documentation of the trip ended there. On Saturday afternoon Ricardo took Diego and Alexia to the hotel pool for a few hours while I napped with Marco.

On Sunday we went to church with Aaron and Helen (they were visiting his parents and her sisters there) which was awesome and then out to a fun lunch with them before we hit the road to return home in the afternoon.

As Ricardo was unloading the car, he spotted these beauties. This is right on our backyard, next to the playset. They hung out for quite awhile and it was so neat to watch them in the backyard.

New jammies

I bought all three kids matching jammies this week. Marco was asleep for the photo shoot, but Diego and Alexia melted our hearts:

Chattanooga

I've uploaded the pictures from only one camera so will just share about the first day of our trip for now. We arrived in Chattanooga around 3:30pm on Friday. The road trip there was great as Marco slept for about an hour and then just chatted away the rest of the trip. As soon as we arrived, we pulled right into the parking lot of the Children's Museum. We have been there before and it is awesome. Unfortunately, we didn't have a lot of time there before it closed, but we still had a blast. The kids LOVED it.
After the museum we headed straight to dinner at an amazing Italian restaurant. Ricardo and I each had some of the best pasta we've ever had. All three kids shared a pasta dish and really enjoyed it. Ricardo and I have always enjoyed eating out together and used to go on a lot more dates before Marco was born and even more before we had kids. Our dinner out on Friday felt like a special date night, but with three little ones in tow. We didn't get to enjoy deep conversation, but we did get to enjoy the wonderful blessing of sharing a family together.

At the children's museum, Ricardo took D & A to dig for dinosaur bones while I took Marco to the baby section. Here he is driving a hot rod!

They sat us at their huge communal table which was so cool!

The kids loved the dripping wax on the table behind Ricardo

Can't have a date night without an ice cream treat. Diego thought it was the coolest thing ever that we were having ice cream at 7:00pm, their normal bedtime!

Last weekend

We just returned from a fabulous weekend away in Chattanooga. We took off Friday at 1pm and returned this evening. We enjoyed a special family weekend and have some pictures to share...
Before I post about Chattanooga, I wanted to upload some pictures from last weekend:

Ricardo recently found out that with our Bank of America cards, we receive free admission to the High Museum the 1st Saturday of every month. Children under 4 are free so the 5 of us spent the afternoon at the museum for FREE! Can't beat that! We had a great time and the kids did really well keeping up with us while we enjoyed the different galleries. We made two stops in the children's area so they could play for a bit:




Marco loved playing with the blocks and especially loved playing with them whiling hanging like this!

Thought this was a cool family shot, in the elevator heading to the parking garage.

Last Sunday we went out to dinner to an old favorite of ours, Zyka. We had not been there for a really long time and we enjoyed a delicious Indian meal. The kids loved all the food, especially the spicy chicken.

Marco devoured his saffron rice!

So sorry these pictures are in a wacky order, but I think my mind is in a bit of a wacky order as well. Yesterday we were driving home and Diego kept saying, "biblioteca, mami, bibiloteca mami" (library mami, library mami). I wasn't registering what he was saying and pulled into the driveway before I realized we had to return our books at the library. Where did we end up? The parking lot of the dry cleaners! Yes, having 3 kids just might be making a bit foggy :)




It is very appropriate that he was wearing his spiderman shirt the day he learned to climb the door frames of the house. Elizabeth, I showed him the video of Alex doing this and he LOVES it. He loves to climb all the way to the top, tap his head then inch back down (or jump down if he is over carpet)


Happy boy with adorable chubs!


Last week we kept Hartley and Adeline for one night and then Gwen and Asher joined us for the 2nd night. We had a fun time with the girls and kept busy baking, reading, playing outside, coloring and giggling.

Best buds

As soon as they heard Marco wake up, Hartley and Alexia jumped into his crib. As you can tell, he thought it was great!

The cooking crew. We baked peanut butter cookies from scratch and brownies.

Delicate fingers opening the butter


They had a blast baking together and did great taking turns and working together.

Can you believe this lil' guy is big enough to play in the tupperware cupboard?! He loves it!

I love the joy that this photo captures.

Munchin' on some cantaloupe. He prefers to feed himself now and is eating a variety of foods. Tonight he devoured the vegetable and bean soup I made for dinner. He also loves cheese, chicken, all fruit, cheerios and all beans (pinto, kidney and black are his favorites).

We took care of Deven last weekend so his parents could so some house-hunting in our neighborhood (!) and the kids kept busy digging in the backyard. Yes, that is Alexia's gardening attire! It sure captures that girl.

Today was a busy day and tomorrow will be even busier. Diego starts soccer tomorrow so he is beyond excited!

We made a last minute decision to go out of town for the weekend so Ricardo is taking Friday off of work and we are going to drive to Chattanooga to have a family weekend away. I'll have lots of photos to share next week!