Egomaniac

Diego has decided to start speaking in the third person. Why he has developed such an egomaniacal habit, I don't know.

"Diego is hungry."

"Diego wants a turn."

"Diego is ready to go outside."

He had preschool today at Marcelo's cousin's house. I warned her about this new development. When I went back to pick him up, she said he did it a couple times. "Diego wants to color now."

WHY? When I asked him why he doesn't just say, "I'M hungry," or "I want a turn", he said, "Because I like to say Diego."

Okay then.

It's the little things

Success for me on a Tuesday night is getting my kids to eat their entire dinner of black beans and rice without a fight.

Sweet sweet victory is getting them to eat their spinach berry sherbert for dessert.

I can now sleep peacefully.

Goodbye Shaggy Boy

We finally did it. Marcelo finally convinced me that it was time to cut Celo's hair. I was so against it. It's pretty ridiculous how attached I was to his hair. I felt like cutting his hair meant letting go of my baby. I loved the shaggy, curly mess.


Here he is in running a comb through that mop, right before his haircut.

He gave Grandma a very hard time and refused to sit still, but with me sitting in front of him feeding him mini-marshmallows, the makeover was completed. He looks like a different kid. Diego thinks it's hilarious. He's like, "Celo's hair is gone!! HAHA!! He looks like ME!" Now I have two children that look just like their father. You can see his little tough guy scar now.


I'm not going to lie. I almost cried. But I like it. It's just for the super hot summer. Then we'll let it grow out again. And I'll have my shaggy boy back.

Everyone was always commenting on how his long hair made him look like a mischevious little menace. We're hoping that now that the hair is gone, his mischevious little attitude will go with it!

I'm Healed.

On Wednesday, it will be 6 weeks since I cracked a rib coughing. Aside from cracking a rib, I also tore a chest muscle off the bone. Well, supposedly. The doc didn't do any kinds of scans or anything to prove the muscle part. So I don't know for sure. All I know is that for the past 6 weeks, it has hurt like a mother to cough, laugh hard, or sneeze. The first 3 weeks were really hard. If anything touched the rib area...you know, like Diego kicking me right in the ribs...it hurt so bad. Even taking deep breaths was painful. I couldn't lay on that side, or lay on my stomach. I couldn't move certain ways or lift anything too heavy because of the muscle pain. It was not fun.

Today I can say that I feel 99% better than I did 6 weeks ago. It still kills to sneeze, (I feel like I'm having a little heart attack every time) but I've learned to control the reflex for the most part. Sounds funny, but it's true. If I feel it coming on, I think, "OH NO", and start rubbing my nose like crazy to make it stop. I probably look pretty weird. And if I lay on my right side, I still get sore pretty quickly. Aside from those two things, I feel fabulous. Yay!

Now I have to boast about my wonderful husband. Like I said, the first 3 weeks were really hard. I could hardly do anything. A couple of days a week, my mom, mother-in-law, or sisters-in-law took the kids. But in the evening, Marcelo had to help with everything. That poor guy was soooo tired at the end of those 3 weeks. He's always been great at helping out around the house, but this was excessive. I hated feeling so...useless! It's never fun to have to ask for help. By the 4th week, I was back to taking care of most of my share, minus the heavy lifting. And now, the only thing I still need help with is the Laundry Transfer. (You know...carrying a wet load of laundry out to the far end of the garage to put it in the dyer. What? Your washer and dryer aren't on opposite ends of the house? That's just me? Oh.)

Anyway, my sweet husband was awesome through this whole ordeal. But I'm so glad it's over!! The best part about the whole thing was the discovery that Marcelo is AMAZING at giving back massages. How did it take me 6 years to discover this incredible skill? I think we need to make up for lost time. I looooooove back massages.

My Big Boy

Before having a baby, I read everything I could get my hands on about raising kids. The thing I found across the board was that routine was the key to a happy child. I figured, hey, these people are experts, I'll listen to them. So ever since the boys were really really little, I've been very consistent (read: I've been a complete nazi) about their naptime and bedtime schedules. They learned to go to sleep on their own very early, which makes bedtime pretty easy. We do our bedtime routine (sing some songs or read a book and then say prayer), kiss them goodnight, and then don't hear from them until morning. Naptime is the same. Every single day at about the same time, Diego naps for 2 hours, and Celo naps for 3. I really attribute this to having a routine. Well, that and pure luck.

Anyway, a couple of nights ago, when I was putting Diego to bed, he said, "Mommy, sleep with me!" Usually, when he says this, I say something like, "It's time for bed. I love you. Goodnight," and walk out of the room. But not that night. That night, I gave in.

To his complete surprise and delight, I laid down next to Diego and pretended to sleep. He snuggled next to me and put his arm around me. I opened my eyes and saw him smiling. He rubbed my back, and whispered, "Hi Mommy." We then played for a little bit making silly faces. We started talking and didn't stop for about 20 minutes. I asked him questions and he told me little things about his day and then told me about what he remembers about Colombia. He told me about his friend, Carlos Alberto from the farm. It was so so cute and taught me two things:

1. Strict routines are overrated. In a few short years, Diego isn't going to want to snuggle with Mommy anymore. I need to enjoy these moments now, instead of being so worried about what it'll do to his sleep cycle. Sure, it makes my life easier to not have to beg him to go to sleep, but I'm also giving up these precious little moments that will never return!

2. I need more one on one time with Diego. And he needs more one on one time with me. In the last few months, Diego has regressed in a lot of ways. When Celo was born, he did just fine, and never got jealous. But, now that Celo is talking a lot and getting attention from us, Diego is having a hard time. I try to make sure I praise Diego a lot, so that he doesn't feel left out, but it's not really working. When Celo says a new phrase, I can't help but act all excited. So then Diego will repeat what Celo said, using baby talk like Celo. I tell him he doesn't need to talk like a baby and that I love that he's a big boy, etc, etc, but he doesn't care. He just wants to talk like a baby. Here's an example:

Diego uses full sentences like: Mommy can you open this please?

Celo would just say: Dis. Peeeeeeees.

So that's what Diego says now. It's. So. Frustrating.

Anyway, after seeing how different he was acting when I was hanging out with him alone in his room, talking like a big boy, etc, I realized I need to spend more time with him alone. So, the very next day, he and I went on a date. I'll write about our first date next time. It was so fun!

Easter Pics

We had a total of 3 egg hunts this year. The first one didn't go so well. It was at a community park, and Diego was supposed to go with his cousin Reagan, but as soon as they yelled go and kids started running past them, they both kind of freaked out. Diego was sooo sad he didn't get any eggs, so we did a repeat session with his cousins last week. Then on Saturday, we did another egg hunt with his cousin Sofia, who was in town for the weekend.

Here are Diego and Reagan waiting for the "Go" signal. Too bad, they got to scared to actually "go".

At least he got to take a picture with the chick. Marcelito had fun getting eggs with Daddy.

Next was the egg hunt with his cousins. Danielle and Reagan were the official egg hiders.

All the cousins.

Leilani
Reagan Diego Isabella Celo just stole other people's eggs.And Gabriella just watched. Isn't she so cute?

Last was the egg hunt with their cousin Sofi (who is actually my first cousin).

They made us throw the eggs back out into the yard so they could do it over and over. Marcelito can't say Sofi, so he calls her Fifi. So cute. My mom gave the kids a ride in the wheelbarrow.

Flowers

As stated previously, my grandparents have a bazillion flowers at their farm in Colombia. I took way too many flower pictures to post on this blog, but if you want to see more, you can click HERE.

Roses


Orchids


Dahlias


Don't know the name of this one


And just because, here's a picture of a humming bird.


A close up.

Pictures from Colombia

Exactly one month ago, we were on a plane to Colombia. I took almost 3,000 pictures in the 9 days I was there. The exact number is 2,867. Naturally, I have a lot of favorites.

This first group I'm posting is of the many gorgeous clay pots my grandma has in front of her house. Every morning, we could just walk out the front door, sit on one of the rocking chairs, and enjoy beautiful views of all different colored flowers, arranged in these pots. I'm probably going to blow a lot of these up and hang them up in my house.

I love the last one. More to come this week.

General Conference

This weekend, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints all over the world tune in to General Conference. The first few sessions were today, and there are 2 more sessions tomorrow. I posted this in October, during the last General Conference, but I'll post it again:

This is what the Church's website says about General Conference: Messages of inspiration and guidance will be delivered by the First Presidency, members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and other General Authorities and general officers of the Church. There are four sessions. Two on Saturday, and two on Sunday. On both days, the sessions are at 12pm and 4pm Eastern Time. Each session will have a different set of speakers covering many different topics, music by the Mormon Tabernacle choir, and will last two hours. If you're interested in tuning in, you can watch by finding the closest meeting house in your area, or if you want to stay home, you can watch it on BYUTV (Dish Network -channel 9403, DirecTV - channel 374), or watch or listen online at either of these websites:

http://lds.org/broadcast/gc/0,5161,8584,00.html
http://www.byub.org/programaz/program.asp?id=571

Celo's Crazy Hair

Before I type another post about Celo, I just have to get a little panic attack off my chest. Yesterday, my external hard drive broke, after I idiodically accidentally dropped it. It wouldn't even turn on, and it had ALLLL my Colombia pictures, everything I took in March, and the engagement pictures I just took for a couple last week and was supposed to be giving them tomorrow. I was in a panic. I'm not going to lie: I shed some tears. BUT, my genius husband just informed me that he and my genius father were able to do some surgery and saved my stuff!!!! I can breathe now. :) I learned my lesson. I will never ever copy my pictures onto just one place ever again.


Okay, back to Celo. Marcelito has some crazy crazy hair. I love it. I don't want to cut it. But the time has come. Summer is fast approaching and he's a sweaty little guy, so the locks have got to go. Before we chop off his shaggy 'do, I wanted to post a few pictures of his many hairstyles. Every morning when he wakes up, his hair looks crazy. It's always different. One day, when he woke up with a beehive looking hairdo, Diego started laughing and said, "Look Mommy! Celo has different hair!"

The Many Looks of Celo:



The Mushroom




The Windblown





The Shag




The Straight Up Mess


And my favorite....

The Wolverine

Goodbye adorable hair. I will miss you.

Celo's Stitches

I'm finally getting around to writing the story of how Celo split open his eyebrow.

On our 5th day of being in Colombia, we were all inside my grandparents' house getting ready to have dinner. The kids were playing in the living room area, while my mom and I sat on the couch and watched. From one moment to the next, Celo tripped and fell straight into the corner of one of the little sofa chairs. He immediately started screaming. I ran over and picked him up, thinking that he had maybe hurt his hand or arm because of the way he landed. I picked him up, and immediately tried to look at his arm. Marcelo was standing in front of me and said, "Babe, he's bleeding," just as I felt blood start dripping down the front of my shirt. He wasn't bleeding. He was gushing. So much blood was coming out so fast. Marcelo took him from me and we ran towards the kitchen. Belen, the lady that works there for my grandparents, got a towel and Marcelo held it to Celo's face to try to clean up the cut and see how bad it was. When we saw how bad the cut was, Marcelo was like, "He's going to need stitches." I just nodded and turned to my mom and said, "We need to go to the hospital." She took care of telling my dad and grandparents, while I quickly packed a bag to take to the hospital. I had no idea how long we would have to wait or how long the car ride would be, so I threw in a bunch of stuff as fast as I could. At that point, Celo was still bleeding pretty bad, so Marcelo said, "Find some vaseline." Belen helped with that, and we put it on the cut to stop the bleeding. It helped a lot. We decided we would just go to the nearest clinic, which was only a 20 minute drive as opposed to a 45 minute drive to the hospital. So Marcelo, Celo, my dad, my grandma, and I loaded up in the car and drove down to the clinic. Celo didn't even cry the whole way there. He just sat in Marcelo's lap and ate the snacks I kept giving him.

When we got to the clinic, they saw us right away, and said only one person could go in with him. I decided I should go, just in case they started asking a bunch of questions. If Marcelo went, there could have been a bit of a language barrier. (His Spanish is good, but I just wanted to play it safe.) I went into this little room, laid Celo on the table, and sang songs to him while he laid there calmly. I couldn't believe how calm he was. I started talking to him telling him that he was about to get a big owie, but that I was there, and that everything was going to be okay. He just stared at me.

A nurse came in and handed me a prescription for antibiotics (to prevent infection) and tylenol, and then started cleaning Celo's cut. This is when the crying started (Celo, not me). Then the doctor came in and gave Celo a shot of anesthesia, which made his cut swell up and split open even more. This is when the screaming (Celo) and bawling (me) started. It was so horrible to see him in so much pain. It was just about the worst thing ever. He screamed and screamed and cried while I held him down with all my strength and did some crying of my own. After a little while, Marcelo came into the room. My grandma had been hearing the screams in the waiting room and told Marcelo to go help me because she thought I must have been freaking out. So he came in to help hold Celo down and said, "You can go." But there was no way I was leaving. We both held Celo and waited for it to be over. Right as the doc was finishing and started cleaning up the wound, Marcelo looked at me and said he felt sick. I told him to go back to the waiting room. He went out there and sat down, and I stayed with Celo. The nurse went and gave him an alcohol swab to smell because they were afraid he was going to pass out. He later told me that the whole thing just kind of hit him all at once and made him feel sick. When we talked afterwards, he was like, "How is it possible that I was able to watch you have 2 c-sections without any problems, but my kid gets a small cut and I can't handle it?" It's simple. He loves him more than he loves me. :) Kidding. It's not easy watching your baby in pain like that!

Anyway, as soon as it was all over, Celo acted like nothing had happened. He's a tough little guy. He ended up with 4 stitches. Two days after we came home, we took him to his pediatrician to get the stitches out. He'll be left with a little scar above his eyebrow (about an inch long). This is just another testament to me that we gave him the right name. Apparently if your name is Marcelo, you need to have a scar somewhere on your face. Marcelo has scars on both sides of his mouth and down his chin from a really bad encounter with a dog.

Here's a picture Marcelo took right when we got home from the clinic. The stitches are covered by that bandage. I don't know why Celo is making that crazy face.


And this is what caused this whole thing to begin with. This harmless looking chair.


He fell right into this corner. Does that look like it could cause such an injury? I don't think so.

I Love...

-my mom for taking the boys today so I can rest my achy ribs and muscles
-when my boys are best buddies like yesterday, and play together without fighting
-hearing Celo say, "O foe wide" (Go for a ride), "cooookeeeees" (cookies), "pammmm" (pan, which means bread in Spanish), and "fowa" (flower)
-when Diego tells me which way we're turning in the car..."We going weft Mommy."
-my husband for putting up with my current health drama
-knowing that good tv is on tonight (Lost!) and that there is cookie dough in the fridge
-our bedtime routine with the boys. We cuddle on Diego's bed, and then we ask, "What song do you want to sing?" And then Celo says, "See, see, seeeeen", which means "Sing, Sing, Sing", our made up bedtime song.
-the song by Hootie called It Won't Be Like This For Long. It makes me cry.
-my new red heels that my aunt got me
-the fact that Marcelo just called to say he's coming home to eat lunch with me.

Pineapple pizza, here I come.