Look What I Did!

I chopped off my hair! Before I post the pictures, I have to tell the story.

I've been wanting to get this haircut since before last Christmas. But every time I brought it up, Marcelo begged me not to do it. He likes long hair. So, because he really really didn't want me to do it, I agreed to keep it long. Plus I totally chickened out.

In the past few weeks, I started talking about cutting my hair short again. This time, Marcelo said, "Do it." I was like, "Really??? What made you change your mind?" He basically told me he was tired of hearing me talk about it. haha. Poor guy. Guys just can't understand girls and their hair.

So two days ago I went and got it cut by this guy that came highly recommended. Since I was going for a drastic change, I didn't want to chance it by going to Supercuts or something and end up hating it. Especially since I was terrified of having short hair. The last time I had short hair, I was 12. It was a bowl cut...I don't want to talk about it.

The guy I went to ended up being really cocky. But from what I could see, he was doing a great job. He finished blow drying it and I was so excited because I was absolutely loving it. I stood up all excited, I was like, "Can I see the back?" He gave me a mirror. And that's when I almost started crying. From the back, I looked like Willy Wonka.

It was all one length and curled under. Not what I wanted. And the angle was all wrong. So I asked him if we could make some changes. And he said no. His exact words were, "If I thought it should look like that, that's how I would have done it. You need to trust me because I'm the stylist." I asked again and he said, "No. I'm not going to do it. You'll look so plain jane." And then he went on to say that hair is a hat, and that it grows. What??? I'm paying you!! Just do as I say!! But he wouldn't, so I left, almost in tears, and went directly to my cousin Andrea's house because I knew she would tell me the truth. And she did. She got on the phone with the lady that does her hair and left her a message telling her my sob story.

Luckily for us, her lady, Karen, used to work with Keith, the Willy Wonka stylist, and knew what a cocky bonehead he was, so she felt for me and agreed to fix it. I went to her today and I love what she did. I will not be experimenting with anyone else after this little ordeal.

So, without further ado, here's the before:

And here's the after:

I love it. And Marcelo likes it, too, so I'm a happy girl. And Diego keeps saying, "I like your haircut, Mommy." Or "Nice haircut!" Marcelito couldn't care less.

Goodbye Truck

Marcelo's truck is gone. It was giving him lots of headaches and was about to die, so it was time to trade it in. Although he would have loved another truck, it was just not feasible with the amount of traveling he does for his job. So it was time to get a sedan.

Bye bye gas guzzling truck:

Hello old man sedan:

It's a 2004 Lincoln LS. We really didn't want to have two car payments, but thanks to Tropical Storm Fay, we got a good deal. So with the gas money he'll save, we'll barely feel the difference.

Diego is not pleased. He keeps asking, "Where's Daddy's truck?" When we tell him that Daddy doesn't have a truck anymore and that Daddy has a new car, he looks at it and says, "I don't want Daddy's new car. Where's Daddy's truck? Who take it?" People borrowed Marcelo's truck pretty frequently, and I guess Diego noticed that because he keeps asking, "Who take it? Mikey take it? Irv take it? Grandpa take it?" I told him the car store took it.

I asked Marcelo if there was anything he wanted to add to this post, and his response was, "I miss my truck." Poor guy.

Go-geous

Yesterday, for no apparent reason, as Diego was wandering around the living room in his pajamas right before bed, he stopped and turned towards me and announced, "Mommy, you go-geous."

I died.

I'm always saying to him, "Diego, you're gorgeous. Did you know that?" And he always says, "Yes. I know dat." But I never expected to hear him say it back to me. Especially since I'm pretty sure he doesn't know what gorgeous means.

We spent the next couple of minutes going back and forth like this:

No, Diego, you're gorgeous.
No, Mommy YOU go-geous.
No, Diego, you're gorgeous.
No, Mommy YOUUUU goooooo-geous!

Tsssss. Tssssss. Tssssss. <---- That's the sound my brother used to make, while pretending use an air pump, to "inflate" my head. That's what I felt like last night, as Diego and I went back and forth, trying to give each other big heads.

This brings me to today's topic. While I do go on and on in here about how wonderful my kids are, I really don't want to raise my kids to believe they are the most amazing things on the planet. Of course I will always encourage them and support them, but I don't want to raise a bunch of conceited little ego maniacs. A big ego is one of my top 3 annoyances in life, and I don't want my kids to have that trait. I'm going to teach them what my mom taught me: "There is always going to be someone who is better at something than you....someone smarter or prettier or funnier or more artistic or whatever...and you will always be better at something than someone else. You just have to work hard and do the best with the talents that you're given." This helped me to not care about being "the best" at everything. I didn't feel the need to be super competitive with everyone around me. I could just focus on the things I was good at and be happy and proud of who I was. And this has carried on with me to this day.

My parents have always been enthusiastic and supportive of everything I've wanted to do. But I feel like they gave me support without crossing the line into, "Oh my gosh, you are a complete and utter genius!!! You are the world's most incredible (fill in the blank)!!!! Can you believe how amazingly talented and wonderful my Nathaly is??? It is unfathomable how ridiculously fabulous she truly is." Okay, I got carried away writing that, but you get what I'm saying. They were encouraging without going overboard. And I know some people who's parents did go overboard, and quite honestly, they are some of the most competitive people I know.

Anyway, so I don't want to be like that. I want to be the president of my kids' fan club, but without going nuts.

It's going to be hard, though. Because they are pretty darn go-geous.

Watch out for Crabs

Diego is a parrot. He repeats everything he hears and mimics everything we do. I am usually left stunned after our conversations, because I just can't believe how much he observes.

Which brings me to a little problem we're having. I have a bad habit of saying the word c-r-a-p. A lot. A lot, a lot. And Diego hasn't missed it. Fortunately, he thinks I'm saying crab. We've looked at crabs in books before and he likes to pretend they're biting him. What I'm saying is, he's familiar with crabs. Anyway, so since he thinks I'm saying crab, he is now constantly talking about crabs. Like this:

He'll drop something and then say, "Oh no, crab! Crab's biting. Ouch!"

He'll accidentally ram his tricycle into the wall and say, "Crab! There's crabs everywhere, Mommy!"

Today, he was watching me put stuff in my purse, and a few things fell out. He immediately said, "Crab!! Crab, Mommy. Ouch. Don't touch it, no no no."

I feel really bad about this. The problem is, I don't even realize I'm saying it until it has already flown out of my mouth. I need to try to be more conscious of it.

One more Diego story. (If you don't like to read about poopy potty training issues, stop reading.)

Although Diego's totally daytime potty trained, we're still having issues at night. Without fail, he wakes up with a poopy diaper every morning. I don't know if he goes during the night or first thing in the morning. All I know is that I have to change a stinky diaper every single morning. And if by some miracle he wakes up with a clean diaper, he will definitely definitely wake up from his nap with a dirty diaper. So, the other night, I tried to bribe him. I told him that if he woke up with a clean diaper and went on the potty, I would give him a lollipop. This was our conversation:

Me: If you stay clean and you go poopy on the potty, you can have a lollipop! Okay? But only if you go poopy on the potty. So how do you get a lollipop?

Diego: Um, I don't know. Lick it.

Me (trying not to laugh): No, Diego. How do you get a lollipop?

Diego: Suck it, Mommy. Suck it.

Apparently he thought I was trying to ask him how do you EAT a lollipop. Marcelo and I found this to be hilarious.

Deceptively Delicious

I've been experimenting with this cookbook this week. I've had it for almost a year, but up until this past week, I had only tried one or two recipes. Here's a little rundown of the recipes I've tried:

Oatmeal with pumpkin - I liked it. The taste of pumpkin isn't completely hidden, but it's still good. Diego loved it and that's what counts.
Buttered noodles with squash purée - I had to use Diego's soybutter for this one because of his allergies. I wasn't crazy about it because I'm not used to the soy taste. But he ate it all up without protest (and he's been protesting food a lot lately).
Spaghetti with carrot purée - I actually didn't use her spaghetti recipe. I made my own sauce and dumped some carrot purée into it. You really can't taste the carrot. We all liked this one.
Taco Soup with carrot purée - Again, this is not her recipe. I just made normal taco soup and dumped some carrot purée into it. Alone, you can taste a hint of carrot. But once you dump all the toppings into it (cheese, sour cream, guacamole, cilantro, green onions, and lots and lots of lime juice) you can't taste the carrot at all. We loved it.
Strawberry Oatmeal bars with spinach purée - This recipe is supposed to be made with blueberry preserves, but all I had was strawberry, so that's what I used. I was very skeptical about the taste of spinach disappearing. It's a strong taste! But it did. You really can't taste the spinach at all. Diego and Marcelito have been eating these for breakfast for the past 3 days. Honestly, they're not the greatest bars I've ever had. They're just decent. Maybe they would've been better if I had added the cinnamon, but I couldn't because of Allergy Boy. My kids are eating them, though, so I'm happy.
Brownies with spinach and carrot purée - Not my favorite. If you like dark chocolate, you'll probably like these. But I'm a milk chocolate girl, so these weren't sweet enough for me. If you let them cool before you eat them, you can't taste the vegetables at all. I ate one with a scoop of ice cream on top, which made it not so bad. Diego ate it alone and liked it. He's going to be very used to the taste of dark chocolate because he can't eat milk chocolate.

So even though these aren't the most spectacular recipes I've ever tried, they're good enough that my kids like them, which means they're sneakily getting a few more helpings of vegetables. (And so is Marcelo.) This makes me a happy girl. I love to cook and I love to experiment, so trying these recipes has been fun. I'm excited to try more of the recipes in the book, and I'm also going to try to add purées to the things I normally make. For instance, tonight I think I'll dump some carrot purée into the pasta e fagioli I'm making. That isn't really anything crazy though, because lots of pasta e fagioli recipes have chopped carrots in them.

Mmmmm. That soup sounds good. And it's only 10am. But the non-stop rain is making me forget what time of day it is.

Storm Update

It has been raining non-stop for two days. My house feels so dark. I've been wearing the same sweatpants since yesterday. Don't tell Jae.

The boys are napping through the rain, thank goodness. They napped just fine yesterday, too. Of all the worries that come with hurricanes or tropical storms, naptime was my greatest concern.

I'm trying to keep the boys entertained as much as possible, but I can't blame them for still being bored. I'm bored, too. I rented some movies, but they haven't really been a hit. Diego can't sit still long enough to watch a movie. So we're spending our time throwing pillows on the floor and jumping off the couch instead.

Poor Diego has no idea what time it is, since the sky looks the same all day. He keeps asking me, "What time is it? It's wunch time? (lunch time) It's go to sleep time?" He liked watching the rain for the first few hours, but now it's so normal, he doesn't even care. He just wants someone new to play with. He's like, "Who's coming today?" He's so bored playing with mommy and daddy. Marcelito, on the other hand, couldn't care less that he's trapped inside the house. He's happy playing with the same car over and over again. Or eating. That boy loves to eat.

In the past few days, Marcelito has finally started walking a ton. He's been walking here and there for about a month now, but he was still choosing crawling as his main form of transportation. Now he tries to walk as much as possible, without pressure from me or Marcelo. He just pulls himself up on something and then walks across the room to get what he wants. He's so wobbly, I love it.

Okay, I'm off to play in photoshop. I can't handle cleaning anymore. I spent the morning cleaning while Marcelo played with the boys. The smell of Lysol and Windex is giving me a headache.

Just Another Manic Monday

Whoa, oooh, oh.

Hurricane Fay is upon us. By tomorrow afternoon, we should be in the middle of a major downpour. You know what that means to me? My children will be too afraid to nap. Which will make them cranky. And I'll be worrying about the increasing winds and keeping an eye on the tornado watches, which will make me cranky. The next couple of days aren't going to be fun.

So today, I made a trip to Walmart to get groceries and some final preparations. You know what felt really good? Knowing that I already have a few months worth of food storage at home, which meant I didn't have to buy much in the way of emergency supplies. Yay for me. Well, yay for my wallet.

On my way home from Wally World, I looked in my rearview mirror and saw flashing blue lights. I immediately looked at my spedometer......ohhhh grrrrreat. I was going almost 20 miles over. I pulled into the first neighborhood I came to, and to my surprise, the cop pulled up next to me, instead of parking behind me. I thought, this could be a good sign. She looked at me and said, "What's the speed limit back there?" I usually (the other 3 times I've been pulled over) clam up and keep quiet, but this time I opened my mouth. I said, "I'm sorry. I have a 2 year old telling me he needs to pee, so I was rushing and didn't pay attention. I'm sorry." She said, "That's almost a $250 ticket. Slow down with a baby in the car." And then she waved me off! I was like, thank you thank you thank you thank you. It took about an hour for that sinking feeling you get when you see those lights in your rearview mirror to finally go away.

When we got home, the aforementioned two year did, in fact, go pee, and then I worked on dinner while the boys had lunch and watched a little of the Cars movie. And now, I'm waiting for dinner to finish cooking and praying for Marcelito to fall asleep. It's 3pm! He woke up at 7:15am! How is he not tired??? He's just playing in his crib. That 10 minute nap in the car could NOT have been enough for him. SLEEEEEEP.

Just playin' around

I had some fun playing with the manual settings on my camera today.

Here are my three favorite shots of the day:

Diego's eyes

Diego playing in the blinds

The flowers that my Tia Liliana gave me when I had surgery.

We went to Animal Kingdom last weekend with my sister-in-law and her family. That was our last pass (we had 4-day passes), which means our last Disney trip for a long time. I'm kind of glad we're done, though, because it's kind of addicting. Seeing Diego so happy and excited is so fun, and it makes us want to keep taking him back. But our wallets can't handle it. And, quite frankly, it's tiring.

This was my first time to Animal Kingdom. I loved it! My favorite part was the safari. I tried to take as many pictures as I could with one hand around Marcelito, but he's a squirmy monkey, so it was hard. There were so many beautiful photo ops. I had to control myself and put the camera away so I could focus on letting my kids have a good time.

I loved these trees! They look like they're upside down. The branches look like roots.
Diego had a lot of fun, too. He got to see elephants, which was really all he wanted from the beginning. He saw tons of animals, rode the triceritops ride, rode the train, and even petted a goat. But, whenever possible, when he noticed that everyone was standing still long enough to allow it, he would whip out his true love, and do this:

Yes, that's a racecar. He's obsessed.

Random Pictures

I just want to post a bunch of random pictures.

The boys at the "mountain", as Diego calls it. (The fountain at the nearby shopping center.)

This is Diego hiding under Marcelito's high chair because he didn't want to get his haircut. Marcelo was supposed to shave it, but ended up giving him a mohawk. I agreed to let him have a mohawk for a day, but asked him to shave it off the very next night. I'm such a party pooper.

This was at an indoor play place. Diego loves a "go-kart" they have there. It's a little car that he rides down a long ramp. He rode it over and over again. At one point, he stopped and said, "Uh oh. Sometang's wrong go-kart." Then he pulled on the back of it a few times, like you would pull on a lawn mower to start it, and said, "I fix it." I started cracking up because he was clearly imitating his daddy. Marcelo does that pulling motion when he's fixing the go-kart at my in-law's house. I couldn't believe that Diego has noticed that, and was trying to do the same thing to the little plastic car. You can kind of see his mohawk here.
Man, Marcelito's head is getting big. He's in the 25th percentile for height, 25th percentile for weight, and 95th percentile for the size of his head! It's to store his giant brain.

Tagged!

Okay, don't take me too seriously. I just had fun answering these.

1. What is your favorite fictional character from a book or movie? I can't think of one! Marcelo said I should put "Rose from Titanic". That made me laugh pretty hard. I can't believe he knows her name. Okay, I just answered all the questions and came back to this and I still can't think of one.
2. What are your 3 best physical assets? I'd say my eyes, my smile, and my black feet. (I'm kidding about that being a good asset, but not kidding about the fact that they're black. They are.)
3. Name 3 attributes you would be proud to pass on to your children: my ability to always keep others' feelings in mind, my intellectuality, and my bottomless pitt of a stomach.
4. Name 3 attributes that you hope not to pass on to your children: My temper. I know what you're thinking, "What temper???" And you're right. I don't really have one. ;) My stubbornness (again, you're shocked, I know.) And the fact that I worry way too much what people think of me.
5.If you had to give up one of the following things FOREVER, which would you choose?1. all makeup 2. flat iron/curling iron 3. razors (laser hair removal isn't an option): Definitely 2, because my life without blush would be empty, and we all know I'm a hairy beast, so option 3 would not be pretty.
6. What do you think is your best quality? I'm a good mom. On most days.
7. What is your worst quality? I can be way too sensitive and I tend to over analyze things.
8. What would be a perfect day for you? I'm just going to echo Janelle: A day to myself with no kids, where my house was clean, laundry done, etc so I could just spend the whole day doing whatever I wanted, which would end up being digital scrapbooking, reading, playing photographer, eating good food and watching movies.
9. Where is your favorite place you have ever visited? My grandparents' farm in Colombia.
10. Name something you are really good at? I think I'm a pretty good cook.
11. What are you most shallow about? I guess the fact that I don't feel like I look human without blush.
12. What is something you're a little bit conceited about? I love Janelle's answer on this one, too: My kids! As the parent you're not supposed to be the one to gush about how adorable they are, but it's hard!!!
13. Name 3 things you are embarrassed to admit: More often than not my house is a mess, I thoroughly enjoy some really stupid reality shows, and I still take naps with my kids pretty often.
14. Tag 3 people: Carly, Jae, and Manda.

Books!

Yes, I just posted two seconds ago, but this is a totally different subject and I didn't want to group it with a post about surgery.

I stole this straight from Marcelo's friend's blog. This is a list of the top 100 books ever published. Supposedly, the average person has only read 6 of these books.

I tag everyone. This is what you have to do:
1. Copy the list on your blog.
2. Read through the list and mark the books you've read in bold.
3. Italicize any you started, but didn't finish.
4. Color the ones you loved in green. (Or whatever color, really.)

I'm so sad to see that I've only read 12 (maybe 13) of these books! I better get to the library.

1. The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
2. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
3. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
4. Lord of the Flies - William Golding - weird
5. Life of PI - Yann Martel
6. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett - I loved this book when I was little.
7. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
8. *Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - I *think* I read A Case of Identity.
9. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
10. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
11. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
12. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
13. His Dark Materials (trilogy) - Philip Pullman
14. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
15. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
16. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
17. Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger - My favorite book in high school. I wonder what I would think of it now.
18. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
19. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
20. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
21. Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis
22. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – C.S. Lewis - I made a very embarrassing commercial about this when I was in 4th grade. All I can say is, "ROAR!"
23. Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne
24. Animal Farm - George Orwell - weird
25. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
26. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
27. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
28. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
29. Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White
30. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
31. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
32. Complete Works of Shakespeare
33. Ulysses - James Joyce
34. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
35. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
36. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
37. The Bible - I've only read the New Testament the whole way through.
38. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
39. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
40. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
41. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
42. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
45. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
46. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
47. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
48. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
49. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
50. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
51. Little Women - Louisa M. Alcott
52. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
53. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
54. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
55. Middlemarch - George Eliot
56. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
57. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
58. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
59. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
60. Emma - Jane Austen
61. Persuasion - Jane Austen
62. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
63. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
64. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
65. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
66. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
67. Anne of Green Gables – L.M. Montgomery
68. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
69. Atonement - Ian McEwan
70. Dune - Frank Herbert
71. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
72. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
73. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
74. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
75. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
76. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
77. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
78. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
79. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
80. Bridget Jones’ Diary - Helen Fielding
81. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
82. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
83. Dracula - Bram Stoker
84. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
85. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
86. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
87. Germinal - Emile Zola
88. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
89. Possession - A.S. Byatt
90. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
91. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
92. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
93. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
94. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
95. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
96. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
97. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
98. Watership Down – Richard Adams
99. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
100. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

Your turn!

Surgery, Surgery is No Fun

So I had the lump taken out yesterday. I'm not going to lie: I was terrified going in. Not about the actual surgery or about the recovery. I was scared about the anesthesia. After my 2nd c-section experience, I can't help but be a little aprehensive about anesthesia. So, to the annoyance of the nurse who was prepping me, I read the entire anesthesia form, instead of skimming and signing like I used to do. The part that stood out: Complications could include heart attack, stroke, failure or damage to organs such as the liver, kidneys, BRAIN, and even death. Not comforting at all. Did you know that 1 in 250,000 people DIE under general anesthesia??

I know, I'm a total spaz. But I made it. I'm alive and well. The only pain I had to complain about yesterday was my throat. They shoved a breathing tube down my throat during the surgery, and it left my throat super scratchy and sore. My voice is still pretty raspy today, but my throat feels much better. Other than that, I'm feeling pretty well. I'm just a little sore, and can't lift my arm up or lift my kids. Thankfully, my mom has been a huge help.

As for the lump, it got sent to pathology and I should be getting the results relatively soon. They're pretty sure it's benign, but I still want to know exactly what it is. Once I get the results, you better believe my old OBGYN who said, "Breastfeeding is supposed to hurt," and ignored me when I was crying in his office in pain, will be receiving a nasty letter from me. Oh, and my husband. Marcelo informed me last night that he wants to be the one to write the letter.

So that's the story. Goodbye, evil painful lump. Maybe breastfeeding won't suck next time. (Nice choice of words, right?)

Just an Average Tuesday

This is how Diego and I spent the morning:

They're all a little blurry, but you get the idea.I love his face in this one.
"Mommy, take a picture my foot."

Diego has finally discovered jumping. It took him a long time, thank goodness, to get to the jumping off furniture point. Until recently, he's been very cautious and hesitant about jumping. Even in the pool, he won't jump in. But I was enjoying the peace of mind that his wussiness gave me. And now it's over. He wants to jump off everything. So, to keep him from hurting himself, I threw some pillows on the floor and let him go nuts. See how sweaty he was by the end?

You would think that all that jumping would have tired him out so he could take a good nap. You would think. But nooooooo. He is currently sitting in his room talking and singing to himself while I pray for him to please please go to sleep.

Diego Tidbits

Diego has been on his best behavior for the past few days. I'm trying to soak it up before he decides to be a cranky pants again. He was having some breathing problems last week, so we had to put him on prednisolone for a few days. That drug makes him crazy! He gets very defiant and seriously becomes deaf to our reprimands. He doesn't listen to a single thing we say when he's on that medicine. A few days after he stops taking it, the difference is huge. We're like, "Oh thank goodness, he's back."

He's been saying and doing some funny things lately, so this is a post all about my (as of yesterday) two and a half year old!

- He says, "I help you" to say, "I'll do it myself." For instance, if he wants to put his shorts on by himself, and I'm trying to help, he says, "No, I help you!" and makes me back off. I guess it's because he always hears me say, "Here, Diego, I'll help you." Sometimes he does try to say "I'll do it myself" which sounds like ,"I do by self."

- He always wants to know where things came from. It doesn't matter if it's the ham he's having for lunch, the shirt he's wearing, or a new toy...the question he always asks is, "Who gave to you?" Meaning, who gave me this? And he always always thinks Tata is the one that gave him everything. If I make him oatmeal for breakfast, he asks who gave it to him and I say, "I made it." And he's like, "No, Tata gave to you." Same with any new toy, or any new outfit. He never believes that anything comes from me or Marcelo. He thinks Tata is the only one who gets him stuff. Well, with the exception of spaghetti. If we're eating spaghetti, he says, "Grandma gave to you?" Because we eat spaghetti at Grandma's house a lot.

- Speaking of spaghetti, he pronounces it "Scabetti." I love it.

- He pronounces popsicle like, "Popscible."

- He's got a great imagination. Just today, we were in the living room, pretending we were riding go-karts at Grandma and Grandpa's house. He sat with his arms out in front of him like he was driving and said, "I drive blue one, you drive red one." And then he started saying, "Oh no, trees are coming! Watch out, Mommy! Be careful!" (Because there are a lot of trees on the little path where we drive the go-karts and if you're not careful, you could really get hit in the face with a tree. ) At one point Diego was like, "Ouch!" And acted like the tree hit him in the face and had me "kiss it all better". It's so fun to play pretend with him and just see where his little imagination is going to take us.

- He's begun to call me Mom. I don't like it one bit. When I'm getting ready in the morning, he comes into my bathroom and says, "What are doing, Mom? Mom, what are doing?" And I say, "What did you call me?" And he starts laughing and says, "Mommeeeeee." I'm like, nooooo, please stay a little baby and keep calling me mommy!! I'm not ready to hear Mom, yet.

- He's knows how to work me. If he sees me running around the house like a mad woman, which is usually whenever I'm trying to get the kids ready and the diaper bag ready to go somewhere and I'm already running late, he always picks that time to want me to sit down and play. I get all snippy and say, "Not right now, Diego. I'm getting ready to go." He blocks my way by standing right in front of me, and says, "Mommy, I need a teh you sometang." (I need to tell you something.) I'm like, "What do you need to tell me, Diego?" To which he responds, " Um, I yove you." (I love you.) And then I melt to the ground right then and there and give him a giant hug. But now he has changed it up. Now when I ask him what he needs to tell me, he says, "Um, there are cars in street." I have no idea where he got this.

-He answers for Marcelito. I'll say, "Marcelo, are you ready to take a nap?" And Diego looks at Marcelo and shakes his head and then looks at me and says, "Marcelo say no." Or he'll just come up to me randomly and say, "Marcelo wants play outside," or "Marcelo wants juice."

-He tells me how to parent. He's still wearing a diaper overnight, so when he wakes up in the morning, he says, "I need a diaper change." At night, after his bath, when I put the diaper on him, sometimes I just put it on without any powder or anything. And he'll say, "No, I need cream. My booty's itchy." I'm like, well, thank goodness he's letting me know how to do my job!

Okay, that's long enough. I could go on and on laughing to myself about the funny little things he does. But I'll stop. For now...