Just Some Kid Quotes

Celo doesn't really know where to insert the word "even" in a sentence. He uses it a lot. Like this: Me: What do you want to do today? Celo: Play with cars. Even I want to play with trains. Me: What did you do at school? Celo: Went outside, painted, even we used instruments. A few days ago, we went to a store called Lumber Liquidators. Diego kept calling it, "Limber Lumber". When I tried to correct him, he kind of laughed and said, "I can't get it straight because I'm from Colombia."

Celo likes to make up nicknames for Eliana. I think he gets it from my mom. She's all about nicknames. (She calls me Surina and Sur, Diego is Jego or Jegoreen or Chiqui, Celo is Chelito or Chiquitin, and Eliana is Peen Peen.) Anyway, Celo's nicknames for Eliana are always changing. She's Baby Elle, Baba Elle, Ellie, and the latest...EElien. Like Alien, but EEElien. I asked him not to call her that because it just sounds like alien, so he changed it to Vivi. Which is his cousin's name. His songs for her are: "You're just a baba Elle, You're just a baba Elle", for when he wants to make her laugh, "Make room for Ellie, Ellie, Ellie, Make room for Ellie, Ellie, Ellie" for when we put her in the bathtub with them or whenever we're trying to include her in something, and "Watch our for Ellie, Ellie, Ellie, Watch out for Ellie, Ellie, Ellie" for when she's trying to knock down their stuff.

Diego is the king of questions. It's non-stop, all day long. "How do you make electricity? What's lightning made of? How does a light light up? Why are some ants black and some are brown? What does masquerade mean? Why do daddies have Saturday and Sunday off? Why does that man work at this store? Why do you like taking pictures of people? Why don't babies have teeth?" And on and on. I'm not smart enough to be his mom.

While Diego loves to know the how and why of everything, Celo is busy making up his own how and whys of his own little world. He's so imaginative and verrry talkative. He tells us long stories that are maybe 10% true, 90% made up. The most recent one was about an alleged earthquake we had in our own home, which will be a whole separate post.

New Joseph Smith Movie

Marcelo is at church playing soccer. I should be getting stuff done around the house, but instead, I just spent the last 62 minutes watching Joseph Smith - Prophet of the Restoration. I pretty much bawled from minute 56 until the end. They changed the movie from the original version to make it more easily understood by a wider audience. People who are not members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints can watch it and understand a little more about who Joseph Smith was and what he did. Although I enjoyed many things about this version, I'd love to know if the original version is available to buy. There were some things I missed about the original. When I saw it in Salt Lake 5 years ago, it touched me and affected me more than any movie I've ever seen. I cried roughly 398 times in that version. And I'm not a huge crier in movies.

Ouch

The hubs is at the emergency room right now. He sliced his fingers a couple of hours ago, while he was trying to trim some bushes. The cord got caught so he pulled it, and when it untangled, it jerked forward and sliced his pointer and middle fingers pretty bad. I'm guessing it'll be at least 4 stitches per finger. Poor guy. Diego went to bed SO worried. He saw all the blood and knew that daddy was going to the hospital, and it just had him so very concerned. A few weeks ago, a little girl in his preschool class tripped and cut her forehead open during class, and had to go to the hospital to get stitches. She didn't come back to school for about a week, and then got the flu and was out for another week. So that's what Diego was thinking about when I told him daddy was going to go get stitches. I was like, "I know you're worried about him but Daddy is really tough. Did he cry? Nope! He's very strong. He's going to be just fine." Through big giant elephant tears, Diego said, "But Mommy, Sofia got stitches and she didn't come back for like 20 DAYS!!!" Diego is soo attached to his daddy. Celo was worried too. Worried that his outside playtime got cut short by this whole incident. I was trying to help Marcelo stop the bleeding while Celo stood there saying, "But we didn't get to PLAAAAAYYYYY." That's what life is all about when you're 3. Who cares that Daddy nearly lost a finger? The sun is about to go down and I'm stuck inside the house. ;) The timing of this incident couldn't be worse. We have some big big changes coming up and we kind of need Marcelo to be intact. I could see all over his face that he was like, "Really? NOW?" Again.....poor guy!

It Was Bound to Happen

This morning, I woke up in a lot of pain. I will be going to the doctor in a little while to take care of my painful situation, but this morning, all I could do was lay in bed a little longer. So the boys were watching tv in the living room, Eliana was asleep, and I was laying in bed, praying to miraculously feel better without the need of medical intervention and a $30 copay.

When I got up, I went straight into the living room to grab the phone and call the doctor. While I was on hold, I glanced over at Diego and saw a bald patch on his head.
In front of him on the coffee table was a pair of little kid safety scissors. I hung up on whoever had me on hold, and screeched, "WHAT DID YOU DO????" And then I started crying. I know, STELLAR parenting. I was just so mad at myself for 1) not sucking up the pain and just being with them in the living room so this could have been avoided, and 2) not realizing that the scissors were left out last night. When Diego saw me crying, he of course freaked out and started crying, and quickly gave me his explanation, "My hair grows fast and I wanted it to look nice. I was just making it look nice." Marcelo JUST gave him a haircut this weekend. I grabbed him by the hand and said, "We need to fix your hair before you go to school." I had literally 15 minutes to fix his hair, get him showered and dressed, make his snack, and get him to school. Thank goodness today was his aunt's day to take him. We went into the bathroom and I took a number 4 to his head, giving him a buzzed look. He was very very upset about it. He said he didn't like the haircut I gave him and that Daddy gives better haircuts. I explained that I was trying to hide the bald spot. I would have to use a number 1 to really hide it, but he told me he didn't want a completely shaved head because, "No one will know who I am!" As he was getting dressed he looked at me with his pouty face, like a little puppy with his tail between his legs, and said, "Mommy, I'm sorry I cut my hair. I don't want you to be mad at me." I gave him a big hug, assured him that I wasn't mad, and talked to him about never doing it again. His next concern was about what the kids at school would say. "I don't want them to laugh at me." I coached him about just laughing with them and told him to make it a joke, but it was clear to me that if anyone says anything at school today, there will be tears shed. I'm almost positive this do-it-yourself-haircut thing will never happen again. At least not with Diego. I still have two other kids.

A few weeks ago, Diego walked in on me cutting my own bangs. Right when he walked in, I thought, "Ohhhhh, I know what this will lead to." I told him right then and there that I was doing it because I was a grown up and that he should never ever try to cut his own hair. But please. I knew right then that this day would come.

Dirty Filthy Boys

Oh how my boys love dirt. Oh how they love tractors. Oh how they love to fill tractors with dirt and then dump it all over themselves. And oh how I love the half hour of peace and quiet it gives me. Diego got so dirty that his eyebrows looked like they had been drawn on with a brown pencil.

I said, "Say cheese" and they broke out into a dance and made up a song on the spot. It goes, "We want some cheese, cheese, cheese." They were cracking each other up. Seeing them make each other laugh makes my heart happy. :)

I wish the pictures were bigger to show just how dirty they got. They love it when I let them do this. I like this picture because it looks like they love each other and have so much fun together. In reality, they are bickering and annoyed at each other like 80% of the time.

These two silly boys have been cracking me up lately. Celo is a hoot. He says the funniest things. If I could remember all the things he says, I could fill a book with hilarious Celo stories. But with this ridiculously bad memory of mine, I forget the stories within 24 hours. At dinner the other night, he told us a whole long story about getting in trouble at school. This is all I remember: "Wawson (Lawson) was not saying nice things, so I spit on him and den I hitted him and I almost broke his head. His hand fell off and he had to go to the hospital and he cried and cried a lot. So Ms. Denise put me in time out and I didn't do it again. It's a good thing the police didn't get me." I will be doing some fact checking with Ms. Denise on Monday. Her reaction every time I see her is, "He had a great day today, Mom!" And she has told me that he's "very kind", so I think it's safe to assume that there were no hands falling off at school this week.

Diego has been an angel child for the past few weeks. I've been soaking it up and praying that he will always be this sweet. He gives me hugs throughout the day for no reason and says, "Mommy I just want to hug you and hug you all day. You're the best mommy ever." He always wants just one more hug or one more kiss and is just sooo sweet and loving. Can he please stay that way forever?? With my health issues, I've had days where I'm..."in a mood", I guess you could say. I don't even have to say anything, and he just sees the look on my face and says, "Mommy, you need a big hug. I hope you have a better day." It makes me tear up on the spot. It makes me feel wonderful and awful at the same time. Wonderful because I'm so proud of the sensitive little heart he has, and awful because he is way too young to have to be comforting his mom. I should be the only one doing the comforting! I'm so so grateful for that boy.

Sunday naps are over. Time to log off.

Eliana - 9 Months

I know all moms say this, but I wish time would just slow down. I can't believe Eliana is already 9 months old! I can't even talk about how much I love this girl. My heart might burst.
This is the outfit she wore for my mom's 50th surprise party. My mom loves Cumbia (a typical Colombian dance), so my uncle had the idea to dress her grandkids and grandnieces in cumbia clothes.When my mom saw the kids, she was brought to tears. Mission accomplished. :) I could just reach in and squeeze her in this picture. Am I not supposed to say that kind of stuff because it's my own kid? Sorry. It's just those expressive black eyes!!She's teething. That explains the drool.Oh, hi Mommy. Are you still taking pictures of me?Starting to get over looking at the camera.Aaaand she's gone.

At 9 Months, she:

-Crawls. It's frightening. I can't leave the room for a second. I'm about ready to throw away all the boys' tiny little toys. Choking hazards everywhere. It's a bit stressful.

- Sometimes pulls to standing, but only if she's really ticked and wants me to get her out of her crib. Pretty much every milestone has happened when she was really mad. The first time she crawled, it was because Marcelo put her down and walked away and she was all, "Do not leave me here!" When he headed back into the room, she met him halfway, crying her little eyes out and crawling with so much angry determination, hahaha.

-Sleeps beautifully. The boys wake her up every morning as they stomp past her room. She doesn't want to miss a thing, so as soon as she hears them, she wants to be wherever they are.

-Signs "eat", "up", and waves hello.

-Loves to play peek a boo. I still haven't been able to get her doing it on video. She covers her face with her hands and makes the funniest face. As she uncovers her face, she says, "BAH". It's adorable.

-Says dadadadada a lot. Mama, not as much. Only when she cries. She tries so hard to imitate sounds. I'm pretty sure it's still by accident most of the time, but when she says things spot on, the boys think it's hilarious. I held a duck up and said, "Quack quack" one time, and she said, "Kak kak." Diego rolled over laughing. "SHE SAID QUACK!!!!"

-Purposefully ruins her brother's creations. At least that's what they think, lol. She loves to crawl to their masterfully created train track, or perfectly engineered city landscape (plastic roads, tolls, and garages for their cars), and just pull them up and destroy them. The boys get really mad, but I can't help laughing because the look on her face is like, "Hahahahaha, see what I did there??"

-Is called Eliana by most, but Baby Elle by her brothers. Celo made up the nickname. He even made up a song. It goes, "You're just a Baby, Elle. You're just a Baby Elle." But he says "baby" like "babeh". And dances around.

-Is 100% weaned. She's not a huge fan of formula, but at least she drinks it now. FINALLY. She was by far my hardest to wean. She was also by far my hardest to breastfeed. It was painful like 90% of the time.

-Loves all kinds of food. Her favorite seems to be cheese, but she'll eat anything I put in front of her. That's a huge difference from the first few weeks of solids. I thought she'd never eat anything. The boys gobbled up cereal and baby food right away, but this little diva was not interested for a long time.

-Has 2 teeth. I think her top teeth might be coming soon though, because she's been drooling like crazy.

-Is only in the 25th percentile for weight, about 50th for height, and 75th for huge noggin.

Wedding Pictures

I was blessed to be able to do a lot of photoshoots from October to January. Three of them were weddings. I've kind of become an accidental wedding photographer. I didn't set out to do weddings, but I've had much more fun doing them than I had imagined. It also kept me a lot busier than I thought it would! I'm soooo behind on posting all the pictures!

Here's a sneak peak from one of the January weddings.

That last one is probably my favorite. :) I'll post the rest on facebook soon.