Vamos a la cama...

....ke hay k descansar! para k man~ana podamos madrugar :)
Jeje.. la cancion me trae recuerdos de mi infancia.

Lo cual es bueno porque puras malas noticias hoy! Empezando anoche, porque he estado tratando de que Baby E duerma en su propio cuarto la mayor parte de la noche y de no sacarlo de su cuna hasta las 3am. Porsupuesto que al nin~o no le gusta la idea, pero no habia sido gran problema hasta anoche, que estuvo llorando por una buena hora (o mas? fue horrible!). No se que hacer. 

Y hoy me dice Quijote que la cama que habia encontrado en Macy's en super oferta no es tan buena oferta despues de todo: son 300 dllrs de shipping!

Mugres hidden fees! sigh...

Quiero arreglarle su cuarto y que se vea algo asi como esta foto:


Pero lo floreado va a a ir en la cama, no en la pared. O en algun mueble, no se. Tambien me gusta este cuarto:

Si algun dia logro terminar su cuartito, se los ensen~o. Por ahora me conformaria con que tuviera cama!! La pobrecita duerme la primer parte de la noche en un colchon inflable, que no creo que sea buena idea continuar por mucho tiempo. Aunque ha sido buena forma de "ensayar" eso de de dormir en una cama, y no en una cuna con rejillas.

PD- Me disculpo por no escribir correctamente, pero mi teclado no coppera- no tiene simbolos en espanol, o acentos, y no logro averiguar como ponerlos!

A Day in the Life of Baby E and Owl

Life for us has been very unpredictable these days. Only a few things are scheduled- and even those are usually ..uhm... optional. I like to have a fluid schedule because it allows for impromptu activities (or lack thereof) and because I feel it doesn't throw the kiddoes off too badly if there ever is a change of plans. On the other hand, we do have a bit of a "skeleton" schedule that I try to follow, and most things happen almost every day (99% of the time, even when traveling or when we have visitors): bed time routine, naptime(s) and quiet time, snacks, physical activities, art, music, and meals within the hour of the scheduled time are a given every day; I also clean most nights (90% of the time) to get ready for the next day. Long story short, it sually our day looks a lot like this:

7-8 wake up
9-10 breakfast and getting ready
10-12 church, library, play date or moms group, or directed play at home
12- lunch
12-2 tea, music, and art time
2-4 nap time or quiet time
4.30 Daddy gets home
5-6 Dinner
after dinner, we watch TV or take a walk
8 story time, bedtime routine
after baby is asleep, I clean. after LO is asleep, Q and I watch tv or relax together. I work on calligraphy if I have a job. we go to sleep around 11 or 12 most nights.

Still, I think it's fun to break it down and see how one particular day goes. The idea of "A Day in the Life Of" posts (I copied this from my fave blog, and recently my friend M did something similar as well) is to give our friends and family an idea of what the day-to-day life looks like. I think it's also going to be nice to look back and see how things change for us as the kids grow up :')
So here goes the long version!

A Day in the Life of Baby E and Little Owl

7-8am Q and the kids wake up. Sometimes Q's shower wakes them up, but lately he has been waiting till they wake up, so today they all 3 woke up at 7:30 when Baby E started rolling around the bed and making noise. Yes, we all sleep together these days. The littles start out in their rooms, but eventually it'll be all 4 of us in our bed. We knew this would happen after having Baby Owl, so when we moved to Memphis, we bought a king bed. So space is usually not an issue, I like to think :)

-9am Daddy plays with kiddoes, and sometimes makes breakfast. Today he made spinach omelet, and I woke up at 8am to try and sneak a shower (it worked! heheh!) before he went to work. at 9 Quijote went to work and the kids and I started getting ready.

There were tears. But he had to go in his crib: while I was trying to get some makeup on, he went over to the toilet and touched the base (YUCK!!) and I had to change him and scrub his hands and face.

By 9:30 we had packed everything (lunch, diaper bag, and ipad, since I was taking pics todays) and I had convinced my little Owl that she should wear her black shoes and socks (instead of the flip flops she found in the driveway-- WHY were there flip flops in the driveway?!?!) by pointing out that she had new socks on and that they had a cat face in them. Little Owl "OOOH! It's a CAT!"

This is the last time she ever wore those pom poms! We sadly lost them during our walk :(

We got to the library like 2 seconds later and it was still closed. So I put them both in the stroller (Owl had already lost her shoes and her pompom headband, sigh) and decided to go get a chai (for moi) and a cookie (for the Little Owl) to kill time. Our little town has a beautiful little square with lots of boutiques and a great coffee shop. The square is a half block or so from the library, so it was a quick walk.

I told her she had to put on her shoes, and she did, hehe, though in the wrong feet :P

My LO looooved the idea. The short walk was very nice (it's been cloudy and cool out! YAY FALL!!) and when we hit a light, I repeated a few words from Dr. Seuss' "Go Dog Go" book to my little Owl- I said "STOP, Dogs, STOP! The light is red!" and I pointed at the light. She got it right away! When the light changed to the little man, and I started saying "Go, Dogs, Go! It's green ahead" she joined me :D!


Baby E loved the shop because he got out of his chains (hehe!) and L Owl got a cookie, and they both loved sitting together in the comfy couch.

The library opens at 10 so we only stayed there for 15 or 20 mins. A little past 10am we got to the library and the crazy fun ensued.

My little Owl holding Mr. Goat. You can see the people had a tea party and then collapsed by the table :P

Okay maybe the fun that is had at a library is not of the crazy kind. It is in fact mostly very quiet and educational. But they love it. Absolutely love it. So there :)

Baby E took his morning nap around 11ish. Lately, it's been a hit and miss with his naps. I think he's transitioning to one long nap. Maybe? hehe! or maybe it's just that he's been sick and congested, so he has trouble staying asleep?

Noon is lunch time. When we're at the library, we call it "Snack Time" because I won't cook lunch, but pack very simple snack-ish foods. Hummus, sandwiches, fruit and cheese, etc. Today it was rolled up prosciutto filled with Munster cheese and cold drinking water.

E made a mess, but isn't he cute, making those little trompas?

After lunch, we headed home, and we got back around 12.30. I changed diapers, gave Baby E some Tylenol, brushed teeth, and had a little playroom time.

You can't really tell from this picture but there is a dinosaur riding the cow that LO is playing with, and both the cow and the dinosaur ended up dangling from my toes later on. hehe!

I took a selfie to make up for the lack of Momma in the past pictures :)

At 1pm Evita started watching a move while I did dishes. Baby E helped me. Evita's TV watching was short lived, since BE and I were in the kitchen, and she decided she wanted to join us. She asked for tea, and sat at the table to drink it while I finished washing the dishes from this morning.

He is just such a happy little man! I learned from Q that he is wearing LO's new shirt. No wonder it was so big on him!

She's been asking to drink real tea from her toy tea set. And this morning she started asking to sit at the baby chair.. very odd, if you ask me.

at 2pm, Baby E got fussy and I knew it was nap time. at 2:15pm he was down, and I took LO to her room for her "quiet time," which is what I call taking her to her room for some quiet activities (more tea time for her today, and a movie or show from Netflix most days) and I started on this blog post while drinking milk and eating a slice of chocolate cake :)

As I said before, Daddy gets home around 4.30pm most days; but it was raining today so when Baby E woke up around 3:45pm, we got in the car to pick him up.  Baby E was not very happy, but LO likes her car rides these days.

Pobrecito Daddy, waiting for us in the rain. Better than biking back though, right? heehee!

We were all home by 4pm, and Daddy started on dinner, which we ate around 5pm in the living room while we watched the last episode of Blacklist.

And here is my wonderful husband, who dutifully makes dinner every night.

We didn't really pay much attention to our show though. Soon after we had finally gotten settled down to eat, Baby E had finished eating and needed to get to cleaned up, then it was time for dishes. Little Owl decided to wash her hands and took too long and we had to get her out of the bathroom by force. LoL.

Around 6pm there was some good ol' fashioned rough-housing (I'll have to add those pics tomorrow bc Q has the ipad right now). Here we go!

And later on a walk, which was pretty tough on LO. For some reason we have been having trouble getting her to stay in the stroller for very long these days. It's not a problem for me that she wants to walk, of course, but she wants to walk, AND she wants to do it her way: wants to decide where to go and how fast and for how long and today there were puddles, which she wanted to sink her feet into!

At 8pm we started a very lazy night time routine. Baby and I were on the couch and he was playing with my phone and going on a serious growling strike. We usually hang out with them in the living room or in a bedroom, all together, while brushing teeth and changing clothes if necessary.

I'll go off on a little tangent here to talk about pajamas, since everyone I know changes their kids into pajamas every night. We don't. I'm only a stickler for pajamas when it gets cold, and basically because of a concern over them staying warm even if they kick their blankets off. But since it's been nice enough still, and they are usually already in clean and comfy clothes by night time, there seldom is any need for a wardrobe change. Today's pictures don't show that they wear lots of outfits each day because the second outfit came after dinner time and by then I'd given up on pictures. But you can see LO wearing a dress while cooking dinner with Daddy, because she got wet during tea time, and then she changed again into warmer and comfy clothes to go for a walk (and so did Baby E).

Around 8:30 we were all ready, and we all went into LO's room for story time. To quote Q on this, story time is a contact sport around here! Baby E applauded Q's story telling, and LO jumped around the whole time, sigh! But most nights she listens attentively and even "reads" along with Daddy in a very cute sing songy voice. After story time there are kisses and goodnights and then Baby E and I go to his room for nursing and sleep time, and Daddy stays with LO till she falls asleep.


Well, it is 9:21 right now, and Daddy is still with LO, but at some point tonight there will be pick-up time and then we'll watch a show or two and go to bed. And this is pretty much our life :)

J, J, and their Babies JJ and J came to visit! (or Act 3 of my previous post :P )

My dear friend J from Dallas came to visit with her little boy, her husband, and her baby girl (a cassette!). It was wonderful to see her again, and meet little JJ and get to see my beautiful friend in her gorgeous pregnant state.

Of course we took the opportunity to exploit Pinterest for some fun activities, and we made some foot prints from a baking soda based clay found here and some yogurt art (an edible baby proof paint that I made by mixing the yogurt with food coloring- look at the directions here). Both activities were lots of fun.

I am planning to add antlers and a red nose to the little finger print to turn it into a reindeer tree ornament.

The clay isn't very sturdy. E already broke one of them.. sigh..

I am just now realizing that we did not take a picture of us girls with our babies for posterity. When I visit her we will definitely have to take one. Hopefully by then I'll have a good camera again and we can get some decent pictures. There are lots of pictures on her Facebook album for you guys to see if you'd like, but I wanted to record her visit here as well because it is one of those things that just did not happen when we were far away- you know, family and friends visiting us "all the time"-- and it is great. It really is one of the reasons why I am so grateful that we are here.

My friend and her family where here for only a day and a half, so I went on this we-have-to-do-everything-today mode. In a way, it made the visit very fulfilling, but I also wish I didn't do that sort of thing because I'm sure they were exhausted by the end of the day. Sometimes it is nice to just hang out and relax together and catch up. Instead, I did a lot of worrying and pattering around trying to get stuff done. Their visit was necessarily short because of a trip her husband needed to do and a convention for his job, and it was a good thing to have a short visit for us as well because our kiddoes were a little sick. So despite my hurried state of mind, short and sweet is a good thing, and definitely better than no visit at all. Hopefully it was a good "trial" road trip for them, so that we will see them again on this side of the Big State.  

Trying to catch up

Family life can get hectic fast, and my back-to-blogging debut happened just after several visits to family, so I was already "behind" in my mind. Then, sometime in between all the visits, Evita got sick-- and soon we were ALL sick. So here I am, trying to catch up on my blogging.

ACT 1

For my birthday (and my Dad's) we visited my family in Juarez and took the opportunity to have Baby E' presentation (I like it better than the baptism thing- no offense meant here).

It was, in the history of all my birthdays, a most memorable one. So much about it was beautiful and perfect and poetic and dear to my heart. We were all together in El Paso on the first day (and the road trip to El Paso was just so great!) and had a wonderful birthday dinner. I also met my brother's girlfriend, which is kind of a big thing. The service for Baby E's presentation was beautiful, and so many of my family members were there! It was beautiful to see my cousins worship, the hands of my aunts and uncles high in the air, worshiping together. A sight I was so grateful to be able to enjoy.
There was lots of great food, lots of celebration, lots of fun. It rained while my family was partying, and the children went outside and played in the rain, and it was just like being in one of those sappy movies... the children playing in the puddles with their bare feet, and the family gathering around watching and talking and laughing. Poetically beautiful-- and yet, no lyrical or descriptive power can truly express the beauty of such moments of togetherness and happiness... My heart swells, when I remember this trip.

Que Dios bendiga y proteja a mi familia siempre, and may He allow us many more moments like this.

Anther day during our stay, my sister S and her husband took Quijote and I out for a double date (which was SO FUN!!) and everything was delicious. I don't think we get to do that often enough- us "adult" siblings. It's good to hang out and talk and have a good time away from the kids sometimes. haha!This birthday was special to me because of outings like this. Because of all this, because of finally being with Dad after so many birthdays apart, and because of many other tiny and big reasons...
And there was a lot of fun cousin time:

"Oigan primos, tengo chisme!!"

 They also spent a lot of time swimming in a plastic pool my mom set up for them outside.Makes me wish we could do it every day!!!

I am very grateful.

 ACT 2

We also visited the M Family, and we finally introduced B and her daughter to our little Baby E. And of course, we also finally met little A. B says she likes the name because it reminds her of mine. Heart!! This trip was also pretty amazing for us. The roadtrip was great, and the first day we were there we spent it lazying around with Grandpa, which is always pretty awesome. It was restful, and comfortable. We watched TV, and slept, and we went out to eat whenever the mood stroke. Then the Bugs came and we met Baby A. And then there was lots of cousin time. Again, it makes me wish we could do it every day.

We celebrated Uncle R's birthday, and Bugs and I went to a Barre class together, which was lots of fun.

We also saw one of Quijote's friends from high school, who lives by the River Walk. It was a great little outing involving a nice walk, a baby water park, and snow cones. And strawberries. I ate the poor guy's strawberries.

It is always interesting to see how other girlfriends of mine (my mind is back with the Bugsy now) deal with the many challenges of child rearing. The Bugs was there on her own, and though Grandma tried to help by doing some of the travel with her, I think the trip was a challenge for her. I remember traveling on my own to see my family once, and the nights especially were tough. Quijote is such an involved Dad, it is hard not miss him whenever he is absent! But the Bugs really did a great job of being on her own with cute little A, and it was wonderful to see her. I do miss ya, girl. 

Finally, my friend J visited us last week, and I want to write about this (Act 3) but alas, it is late, and I want to give it proper attention.

Baby E is standing up!!! And playdough and writing fun for the Little Owl

Some days are great.

Today I woke up and decided we were going to have a great morning, mostly because Quijote said he’d be home half the day (air conditioner people were coming to check up on it).

I got on Pinterest and found a recipe for play dough and my little one and I had a blast cooking up a batch.

She helped me pour, mix, and knead. Then we played with the stamps my sister gave us as part of a birthday present for Little Owl (let's call my girl that). She also made a lot of E's and "finger painted" them with more food coloring. That last part got messy, I should warn anyone out there in case they try it. We used purple gel food coloring and her hands are now bright pink (I guess it's the strongest hue in the color?)

Little Owl has been very interested in "writing" these days. She asks me to help her write her name on her artwork all the time. I've been holding her hand, while she holds the marker or the crayon, and writing her name on the paper that way, so that she feels the movement of the hand as the letters are drawn. I've asked Q to get me a writing notebook for her so she can also practice zig zagging and drawing "balls" (circles) in a more organized manner :)

Here is and example of our artwork. I blurred her name for security reasons- hehe! But you can see that we are practicing zig-zags in preparation for the second and third letters of her name, along with a lot of other fun random coloring.

I wish I had a picture to share with you, but even though Q tried his best to get something, it all happened too fast. We were all playing with the magnatiles in the living room today when I put the Baby on my knee, hoping that if he was on my lap, he would stop going all Godzilla on our constructions. We grabbed one of the tiles anyway, of course, and was so excited about his conquest that he raised it up with both hands, stretching out his arms with great satisfaction. It was such a grand pose that I thought would be appropriate only in a dramatic movie until his legs followed the upward motion --AND HE WAS STANDING!! Q says he's seen it before, but it was my first time to see it. Yay for baby milestones ^.^!!! It makes me happy.

We also spent time outside earlier today. It's going to rain, Q says, so it's been nice out. And now that Baby E is asleep (maybe I should find a name he won't grow out of so fast?) and LO is doing quiet time, I am starting my little blog adventure. Who knows what else great might happen today ;)?

It's the beginning. Again!

First of all, I feel the need to apologize for the blog title, which is admittedly rather boring. I tried tweaking the Valparaiso blog title to fit our present stage in life, but nothing ever occurred to me. I think perhaps it is a sign that this is simply a completely different life we are living. Everything has changed so much since the last time I blogged, and in many ways, we are no longer in that in between place my blog title referred to. Life feels very complete. Quijote and I are married, and we have two little children (gotta think of a blog name for them!). We are also in the Texan Panhandle, where Quijote is now Dr. Quijote, Professor of Economics at a state college…

So anyway. I want to blog. I want to talk about life and share it with friends and family, and I want it recorded somewhere for the kidoes to read later on, if they wish. We do have baby journals, of course, but something about committing things to paper scares me! Haha..

Secondly, I should say that it was my friend M, whom I met during our time in KU, that got me thinking about blogging again. I am certainly grateful for the time we were FMFs (Fabulous  Momma Friends ) in Lawrence, and for the “link” I feel we can still have through the blog she and her husband recently started.

So here goes!