Sea World!

Two days ago, Marcelo was supposed to take an FCC test. But thanks to a local arsonist, the city he was supposed to take the test in was basically on fire and the test was cancelled. With nothing to do on a free day off of work, Marcelo suggested we go somewhere fun with the kids. We were going to go to Downtown Disney to just walk around, but on our way there, Marcelo spotted a sign for Sea World and said, "How much does that cost? Let's go there." He is not really a spur-of-the-moment kind of guy. He's a plan-ahead kind of guy. I love that he's very organized and analytical in his decision making, but seeing this spontaneous side was really fun!

We weren't sure if Diego would enjoy it because he hates to sit still and one of the best parts of Sea World is the shows. But he loved it! We only went to one show, Shamu, (where I didn't take a single picture because of the 9 month old jumping in my lap) and Diego did pretty well sitting through it. He looooved the rides. I love seeing him so happy! It turned out to be a really great day, and the best part is that for the price of just one day, we can go back all year! Marcelo and I will be planning some date nights to their luau. I'm so excited!

Classic Sea World picture

He loved this ride! He went on it twice.

This picture is a total fake. Shockingly, he didn't like getting wet. He wouldn't let go of Marcelo's hand and was like, "I wanna put clothes on now" and "Wanna get dry." But I was like, "Okay, just smile first" and this was the face he gave me long enough for my camera to capture it, before he almost started crying.

Marcelito had fun, too.

No really, he did.

This was Diego's absolute favorite part: Touching stingrays. I'm quite surprised Marcelo could handle being that close to stingrays, what with his near death experience a couple summers ago.

I guess he's moved past that traumatic "attack". (I'm teasing. I know it was real.)
All in all, it was fabulous day. I can't wait to go back!

Victory in a Target bathroom

It happened! We were shopping at Target this morning and Diego said, "I need to go pee pee." I've never made it to the front of the store so fast. I had both kids in the cart, two big boxes of diapers, a big pack of wipes, and some miscellaneous items. The sign on the Family Restroom door said, "Please do not bring unpaid merchandise past this point." So I put the cart in only halfway, so that it was propping the door open and I could keep an eye on Marcelito while I put Diego on the potty. I covered it with toilet paper because, ew. Then I sat him down and heard the most beautiful tinkle. I was so proud of him! He was pretty proud of himself, too. We cleaned up and headed back out to the store, where I promptly bought him 3 new Hot Wheels.

We'll see if he keeps this up. I hope so!

Friends Forever (Saved By The Bell)

I wanted to piece together a few thoughts that I have about my wonderful Wife. Growing up, I thought that nothing could seperate me from the Boys only club. If you told me that my best friend in life was going to be a girl, I would have laughed and called you a liar. 18 years after the creation of the Boys club, I married her. She is the first person I think about telling an interesting story to. She is the first to know any good or bad news that I have. She is the first and last thing I think about each day. She is the one which I have been blessed to spend the the rest of time with. She can be found under a number of listed titles. To name a few, she is a mom, hotty!!( a professional beauty), finance tracker(finding good deals), teacher, helper, doctor of boo boos, hot wheels race car driver, contortionist, multitasker, janitor, potty trainer, nutritionist, singer/dancer, story teller (not a liar, literally a story teller), crayola artist, bus driver(with a van), corrections officer of the naughty room, Sanitation Engineer(nasty diapers), speed strollerist, kid juggler, and my personal favorite...My soul mate. She is truly a saint in roxy clothing(opposite of a wolf in sheeps' skin). Sweetheart, Keep up the good work. You make me very proud to be your other half.

Happy Mother's Day

Marcelo

OCD

This is yet another post about Diego.

I'm pretty sure he's Obsessive Compulsive. Why? Because of things like this:Every time he plays with his cars, or "Mustangs", as he calls all the Hot Wheels, he ends up lining them up like this at some point.

Note the concentration:

Admiring his work:

Other OCD characteristics:

• He can't handle hangnails. He comes to me and wants me to cut them off immediately. He'll be like, "Mommy, cut nails!" Or "Bite it!" (I think his father taught him that one.)


• He can't handle when his lips are chapped and there's a little dry skin on them. He tugs and tugs at the dry skin until he bleeds. Here he is playing with his lips:


• When he's playing with his trains, he lines them up on the track, much like the cars, and slowly pulls them around the track all together. If one falls off the tracks, he gets very upset, jumps up and says, "Oh no! Train fall down!" If a lot of them fall, he'll deal with it one time. But if it happens again....back away. He throws himself on the floor and covers his eyes and starts crying out of frustration.

He actually hasn't done the last one in awhile. And I'm mostly joking about the OCD. I don't really think he is. I know he's going through a phase that a lot of kids go through. They get frustrated easily if they have a hard time doing something. Still, Marcelo and I make fun of his OCD-like tendencies. But we love his little quirks! They crack us up.

From ACDC, to the ABCs

Update on Diego's singing: He's not tone deaf!

A couple of weeks after I wrote the Tone Deaf entry, Diego decided to start singing! It was really from one day to the next. I heard him practicing in his room before going down for a nap. He would just lay there and sing, "Go sweeeeep. Go sweeeep." (Go to sleep.) Then one day, he woke up from his nap, and he just started singing, "Sing sing sing, I yike to sing." And, "Go sweep, go sweep, have nice dweam, have sweet dweam, go sweep." And, "Happy Burday to you, happy burday to you, happy burday a mommy, happy burday to you." The person he sings happy birthday to the most is my grandma, whom he calls Tata Ceci. But when he sings the song, he just says, "Happy Burday Ceci". It's pretty funny.

So he went from singing absolutely nothing, to singing all the time. My very favorite is the ABCs.

It all started with Leapfrog's Letter Factory DVD. I first heard about it from my friend, Alisa. Diego was doing great with numbers, but had no interest in letters, so I bought this DVD on ebay. And voilá, now he knows almost all the letters. He has trouble with G, Q, V, W, Y, and Z.

For awhile he knew the letters if I pointed to them, but didn't know the Alphabet song. I knew a lot of kids his age already knew the ABC song, and thought, hmmm, maybe I should try to teach it to him. But, quite frankly, I hate the ABC song. I think it's so annoying. I think it should be replaced with the Choo Choo Soul ABC song. I can jam out to that one. Anyway, I sang the normal one to him a couple times, but every time I would ask him to sing it, he'd say, "ACDC". And that was it. Well, about a week ago, out of nowhere, I heard him walking around the house singing, "ABCDEFG, HIJK meno P. QRS, "TV", WX, YZ. ABCDEFG, HIJK meno Peeee." (Meno Peeee is the grand finale, apparently.) Some of the letters are hard to make out, but I think it's so cute. I love it.

We are an American Idol watching home. Diego now refers to it as "The singing show". He likes it, but not as much as he likes "The dancing show", Dancing with the Stars. Dancing is still his passion, lol.

Speaking of new talents, Marcelito is now saying three words: uh-oh, mama, and dada. He's also signing "more". Honestly, I don't think he understands what it means, but at least he mimics me when I do it.

Watching them learn is so much fun!

Park Fun

We went to the park yesterday. Or as Diego calls it, the pike.

Yes, I'm aware that yesterday was Sunday. But we went for like 30 minutes, as a family, for a little family time, so I don't feel bad about it. As my mom would say, "Is that bad?"


Anyway, we got a few cute pictures, so I want to share. Marcelito was a little monkey boy and climbed all the way up the slide. He's a crazy one.
After taking those cute pictures of Marcelo with the boys, I realized the last picture I got of me and the boys was taken 9 months ago. So here's an updated one.
You can't really tell from the pic, but I had a kung-fu grip on Diego. He didn't want to sit still long enough for a picture because there was just too much fun to be had at the park. Hence the annoyed face.

These pictures were from another park day last week. Sweni was in town, so we took the boys to the park.Marcelito's hair was standing up from the static.

At the park, Sweni and I tried to chat and catch up. It didn't really work for 2 reasons. 1) Diego kept pulling one of us away and wanted constant attention. 2) Sweni and I need at least 5 straight hours to talk and fully catch up. No....longer. We're marathon talkers when we get together. It was so great seeing her. But it was too short!

On Saturday we went to Sweni's dad's surprise 60th birthday party. It's so fun to see all the Indian women dressed in their beautiful sari's. One day, at Sweni's wedding, I'll get to wear one, too! I'll post a picture we took at the party when I get it from Sweni.

Silly Pictures

Our boys are so fun. They both have funny little personalities. Diego has been trying to make us laugh more and more lately, and I can tell Marcelito is going to be just like him. These pictures crack me up. And the one of Celo is just sweet. He was a little sick.




























The boys with their daddy (and Mr. Bear).














And this is a picture from the other night. Marcelo had gone out with the missionaries, so Diego was pretty bummed out that he had already spent all day with mommy and now had to spend all evening with just me and no daddy for the second day in a row. (Marcelo goes to school one night a week.) This is what happens when a 2 year old gets bored:













I know, I look like a hot mess. I don't think I had even showered. Hopefully your attention is drawn to my sweet neck accessories. Oh, and that's the first picture I've posted of my bangs. It's still weird to me but I'm getting used to it.