Help me.

I am deathly ill. It SUCKS to be the mom and be sick. This bug better be a 24 hour thing.

Trip to See Tio Dabit

A few days ago we loaded up the boys and took a looooong drive to see my brother's place of work. David has a job in civil engineering right now that requires him to travel a lot. This past week, he was in Fernandina Beach. We couldn't pass up the opportunity to see him. I took my camera because my mom had told me how cute the little town was (she went to see David a couple of weeks ago). I also meant to take a picture of David with the kids, but I forgot!! I was too distracted by the big bushy beard he's rockin'!

The timing didn't work out perfectly, so we had a lot of time to kill before we saw him. We took the boys to the marina and watched the birds fly. Celo just kept pointing and saying, "Buh, buh, buh!" (Bird.) Diego didn't really care much. He's too cool for a lot of things, haha.

I think this one is kind of scary:

I'm bummed that I was too close and ended up clipping the wings out of this picture, but it's still kind of cool. Under the dock. I thought it was pretty.Just a cool door. I went a little crazy editing this one to look really old:
Diego sitting on a giant anchor.

See? I told you he was too cool for a lot of things.

Celo does have a hand. It's just hidden. Promise.

It was really fun to see David. We went out to eat Paella, which was really good, but not as good as the one my mom makes. My mom's is soooooooooo good. I need to learn how to make it. We also ate some Jamón Serrano and David felt like he was back in Spain. He started talking with a lisp and everything. Haha, kidding. The poor guy had to see my kids at their worst. They were such a handful in the restaurant!! By the time we were having dinner, it was almost 8pm, Diego hadn't napped, and Celo had only taken a short snooze in the car. Right after our dinner arrived, Diego looked at me and said, "I'm ready to go to sleep." They were two very tired boys.

Anyway, it was a fun evening, and we hope his job brings him back to these parts soon. We love you Tio Dabit!!!

Chocolate Cake

Living with a child with food allergies means constantly looking for new recipes that will be tasty enough for the whole family to eat. On a day to day basis, I don't usually make Diego-friendly food for all of us. I usually set a side Diego's portion and add soymilk, soy cream cheese, or whatever I need to add to make sure he can eat it. Then I pile on the cheese, sour cream, or whatever to our food. Sometimes, however, especially when it comes to baking, it's just too much of a hassle to make him a separate portion. That's when I try to find recipes that work well with soymilk, fake eggs, etc, so that we can all eat the same thing. I do this for meatloaf, banana bread, cornbread, you name it. Not everything works well with egg replacer or soymilk, as I found out this Valentine's Day morning as I tried to make chocolate waffles. Didn't work. They wouldn't fluff up like they are supposed to. I ended up making chocolate pancakes instead. They were very thin and flat, and didn't look so good, but they tasted just fine. Especially with berries on top.

Anyway, back to the point of this post. Before Diego's 3rd birthday, I had yet to find a good cake recipe. Well, thanks to allrecipes.com, I found one! It's a chocolate cake, and you can't tell it's made without milk or eggs. So if you know anyone with food allergies, this is a good cake recipe that everyone can enjoy.

Diego's Chocolate Birthday Cake

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 t salt
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 t baking soda
5 T vegetable oil
1 T white vinegar
1 t vanilla extract
1 cup cold water
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I have to use Ghirardelli because they were the only ones I could find that don't have the milk protein in them)

Preheat oven to 350. Grease an 8x8 dish. Combine flour, salt, sugar, cocoa powder, and baking soda. Mix well with fork, then stir in oil, vinegar, and vanilla. When dry ingredients are thoroughly moistened, pour in cold water and stir until batter is smooth. (I have found that whipping it with an electric mixer for at least 3 minutes on high has given it the consistency I like...like a mix between brownies and cake.) Stir in chocolate chips and pour into pan. Bake 30-35 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.

Diego's Party

We had a Lighting McQueen themed birthday party for Diego this weekend. We got together with our rather large family at a nearby park. The park has a huge open field where Diego can do his favorite thing in the whole wide world: Drive. We took his truck, and Marcelo's aunt let us borrow two of her Diego sized 4 wheelers. I barely saw Diego during the party. I saw him for cake and present time and that was it. The rest of the time he was either driving by himself, or chauffering his cousins around.

Check him out:

You all think I'm exaggerating about his driving abilities, but I promise I'm not. The kid knows what he's doing. I had a friend over yesterday who commented on the fact that it even looks like he checks his blindspots. It's just so funny to watch. He gets it from his Grandpa. They have a mutual love for cars and driving. And the same head. Anyway, one of these days I'll get a video of him driving.

I was SO happy that I found a recipe for a Diego-friendly cake this year! And it actually tastes like a normal chocolate cake! Who knew vinegar could work such wonders? I'll post the recipe later. Baking is not my favorite thing. But I like to decorate the cakes! Diego got to pick out what cake he wanted from my cake book, and surprise surprise, he picked a racecar cake. Gee, didn't see that one coming. I only get to do this cake thing a couple times a year, so I have fun with it. I hope it becomes a tradition in our family, and that our kids look forward to it on their birthdays. Except I have boys so the chances of them caring about that kind of thing are slim!

Right before we sang and blew out the candles, Diego was standing behind the cake with his cousins. They said, "I want to blow out the candles, too!" And Diego said, "No, it's MY birthday." It was not very nice. Afterwards, my mom said that when she heard him say that, she had flashbacks to MY 3rd birthday party. She said some of the kids wanted to "help" me open my presents and I said, "No, it's MY birthday." Oh dear.

As you can see from this picture, his cousins "helped" him anyway!Here is the birthday boy sporting his "Birthday Champ" ribbon. I love it because he's holding racecars in one hand, and flowers for me in the other. Aw!
And this one is just funny because he's looking at me like, "Are we done with the picture taking?"

And finally, one of our little family. I don't know what my hair is doing. Just ignore it. Celo's hair is much funnier anyway.

A Couple of Videos of my little Singers

For a long time, I thought Diego was tone deaf. He was really late to be interested in singing, and I started to think it might never happen. Well, now he sings all the time. He sings himself to sleep during naptime and bedtime on a regular basis. There is one song in particular that I hear him sing over and over and over and over and over and over and....you get it.

It's called Esta Vida by Jorge Celedon. You can watch Jorge Celedon's video for it here if you've never heard the song. If you scroll ahead to 1:13, that's where the chorus starts, and the chorus is the only part Diego sings. It's a good thing, too, because the rest of the song has some slightly questionable lyrics. But the part of the chorus he sings is basically saying that life is beautiful.

Diego LOVES this song. He loves to dance to it, he loves to sing it, he just plain loves it. I finally caught him on video singing it. Sorry the video is bad. I had an 18 month old trying to grab my camera the whole time. Anyway, here it is:

Diego Singing

Celo wants to do everything Diego does, so he's been singing this song a lot too. He only does the "Ay ay ay aaaaaaay" part. Or as he says it, "Yay yay yay yaaaaaay." I LOVE the face he makes when he sings. The way his eyebrows wrinkle up, it just looks like he's soooo into it. It's hilarious. See for yourself:

Marcelo Singing

Enjoy!!

How We Spent Diego's Birthday

First thing this morning, we sang Happy Birthday and then let him watch cartoons. After breakfast, he opened his present from us, which was a hot wheels track with a loop. He loved it. Then we went to church, where he had a little birthday party in nursery. I took some dairy free, egg free chocolate cupcakes. The kids all ate them, so I guess they pass the test! After church we went home so the kids could take naps.

In the evening, I was a terrible mommy and left to go to a youth fireside that I wasn't even really invited to. So why did I go? Because David Archuleta was there. He was asked to do kind of an impromptu fireside for the youth. He was so cute!! He seems like such a sweet kid. He couldn't stop smiling that famous little grin of his. He talked all about his experience on American Idol and talked about how hard it was to be in that world and still try to uphold his standards. He shared things he did to stay strong, which I thought was a good example to all the youth. He shared a story about a lady who began to investigate the church and eventually converted, all because she felt something special when she heard him sing. He cried telling us about a little girl with cancer that he met. He just seemed so nervous and kept apologizing for not being a good speaker. He said, "I'm not good at speaking. That's why I sing." I think if the teenage girls present at this fireside weren't in love with him before, they are now. At least my cousin is. :)

Besides answering all the questions that the youth had written for him, he also sang two songs: Be Still My Soul, and I Know that My Redeemer Lives. Both were beautiful, but Be Still My Soul almost made me cry. He's got such an amazing voice.

I left right before the "meet and greet", so I didn't get to talk to him and shake his hand. I decided I had been gone long enough, and came home to spend time with my birthday boy. Diego had some visitors while I was gone. Grandpa and Grandma, and a family from church came by to say happy birthday. After I got home, Tata and Tato came to see him. They almost didn't come, but Diego got on the phone with them and said, "You have to come to my house. You got a present for me." They couldn't refuse his demands.

So, that was Diego's birthday! Next week is his party. I'll post pictures.

Happy Birthday to Diego!

My baby is 3 years old today.


Here are 3 things we love about our Diego, Dieguito, Jego-Jego, Jegs, Diego-rin, Big Guy, Sweetie Pie.

1. He's so sweet and loving! He always picks flowers for me. Okay, they're weeds. But they look like flowers and it's the thought that counts. He totally knows how to work me. If he sees me all flustered and upset, he gives me a hug and does this little pouty face and says, "Mommy....I yove you." Or he'll tell me he just wants to give me a "big squeeze". Gets me every time. This week, we went to the store to get a few things. One of the things I needed was whipping cream, but the store we went to didn't have any. About an hour after we got home, Diego was driving his truck in the backyard, and pretended to go to the store. He drove up to where I was sitting and said, "I'm back from the store. I got you something. Here. It's whooping cream." I melted. Lately, he's so into being a big brother, too. Last night he told Marcelo, "I yove Baby Celo. I yove my brother. He's funny."

2. He is a great driver. It amazes me. He drives around the backyard in his truck, goes in reverse, and does 3-point turns like a pro. We're thinking about teaching him how to parallel park. You think I'm kidding. Cars and driving are his favorite things. He hops into his little car with Celo as his passenger, waves goodbye to me and pretends like he's going somewhere. Most of the time, he drives to the corner of the yard "to get some gas". Once the car has "plenty of gas", he drives back. He's obsessed with Mustangs and can spot one anywhere. He just has an eye for them. It's crazy. He's like, "Hey! That one looks just like my Shelby!"

3. He loves to dance. Loves, loves, loves it. And the boy's got rhythm. He gets it from his Tata. He mostly likes to dance to Latin music, but an American song will work in a pinch, lol. He's not embarrassed to dance in front of a big group of people and be the center of attention. He has so much energy and knows how to have a good time. He's a little party animal. He always wants to be around people. Everyday he asks me, "Who's coming today?"


Diego has brought so much joy to us in these three short years. He cracks us up, melts our hearts, and tries our patience on a regular basis, lol. We love him!

I'll write how we spent his birthday in a separate post.