merry christmas and happy potty using new year!

NOCHE BUENA:

Xavi was surprisingly good about seeing all these presents all day long on Christmas Eve and waiting until after dinner to open them.

Carolina was not as good. She kept going through the presents and throwing them over her head after shaking them. If I didn't know better, I'd think was she was looking for her own. But she does the same with the laundry.

When we opened them she just rumaged through boxes and paper until she found things she liked. It didn't matter if they were presents for other people.

She and Xavi both liked a mini kitchen she got and they actually played together!

She also liked this walker.

Sofia had to try it out too. Actually I think Xavi tried to sit in it for a bit too.

Merry Christmas!
I think Xavi thought we were done with the presents that night and was shocked to find many (tooooo many!) presents and more stockings in his house christmas morning. How do I know it was too many presents? He actually left to read books and play with toys and told us we could finish opening his presents!

At this age he realy understood what was happening and said he wanted lots of presents so I wrapped indivudual t-shirts to bring the numbers up. We'll have to tone it down, but I'm not sure about his grandparents.
They watched on skype all morning.

When we put this one together for Caro, Xavi said they should take turns - Xavi first!

Eventually he realized it was too short for him and said it was for the baby.

Besides he had more than enough other stuff to play with.

And yes, he is wearing underwear. We decided with two weeks off there was no better time to push the potty training - no more pull ups. We also fully realized that it really is about training ourselves. All those people that told me the switch would go off...?? Lies!!! There is no switch for him or most other kids. Parents I've talked to about this have said the same thing. Remeber Aqeel? Potty in the living room. One couple we know puts the timer on in the kitchen for 1.5 hours for potty breaks. Another one still has accidents unless they remember to put their daughter on the potty regularly. They all sleep with pull ups and VERY few go the the bathroom on their own without being reminded, especially boys. Actually the only two kids that I thought went on their own, were girls and after observing them, I saw that their parents still tell them to go potty pretty regularly. They just didn't fight it as much as my kid and other boys I've seen and sometimes they even went and sat by themselves. And I'm tired of people telling me that he wouldn't go off to college not potty trained when I ranted about it. My mother in law can attest that there are certainly kids that go off to kindergarden un-potty trained.

The pooping issue is still tricky but we have a new system and I'm sure it'll continue to get better. Ok, I'm done ranting....for now.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New year!

Santa Claus CAME to Town!

We went to see Santa to find out when he was finally going to make his way to our house. Xavi has been a bit confused, seeing presents at his tias house. Where did those come from? There are no presents at his house! He stared, wide eyed, when he saw him and patiently waited his turn. He said he was going to ask for his presents (that's what he says when I ask him what he wants for christmas: presents - easy enough). When he sat next to santa he had nothing to say and had this look on his face.

M, don't print this one. There's a copy on the way for you and gramps.

Caro looked at him for a minute before starting to scream. They both got lollipops and were happier than kids on christmas day. Xavi walked away happily saying he saw santa and asked for his presents. Not really, said his tia Gris. He didn't like that one bit and they argued for one second about it until she gave in, because his arguing comes with crying. Now we wait. Until tomorrow for noche buena presents (from my family) and christmas morning for the rest. No traveling for us this year and with this poopy weather we can't say we aren't happy about that. That, plus, Caro has been very cranky these days. Could it be? Finally? Her teeth are coming in? We hope it's something and not just temper tantrums. She's 10 months old now and that's when Xavi got his first tooth, so maybe? Fingers crossed. PS - Caro took 4-5 steps on her own today! She did it when we were alone and had no interest in doing it again once her dad was back. Now that she's getting comfortable, I'm sure she'll try it again and before too long will be chasing her brother. It's exciting and scary all at the same time! Two walking kids - eeek!

We'll miss upstate NY for the holidays. The snow, the fires, the sledding, the family, the food. It's sad to miss this year. Wish we could teleport. Summer is fun up there too, so we look forward to the idea of traveling sans weather delays and cranky teething baby. She'll be 16-18 months old, so possibly still cranky but hopefully no weather delays. It's been the snowiest December in many years, but at least there's sledding to keep us entertained.

Oh and here's our wish for you this holiday season:

santa claus is comin' to town

I've been neglecting the blog recently, I apologize. It's been a busy month. We're preparing for Santa Claus to come to town! Xavi heard that song and learned all about Santa in a few minutes. I wasn't sure how I felt about Xavi believing in Santa last year. I had hoped to teach him about the three kings that come bearing gifts on January 6. Instead of a stocking you put your shoes outside your door. We may still celebrate that a bit but it looks like santa is bringing the majority of the gifts this year. I asked Xavi how many he wanted and he jumped up and reached up and said up to this high. I asked what he wanted and when he hesitated I offered some suggestions. He listened and said "all of it, all of it".

Another day I asked if he wanted to buy his teachers a present and he looked at me like something was wrong with me and said "mami, santa claus is bringing the presents". Then this week, when he noticed other children bring them presents, he said we needed to buy them a present. I asked what we should get for them and he said: chocolate, candy and vitamins. I bought and wrapped some presents and brought them with me yesterday when I picked him up at school. He saw them and said, "Santa Claus came to town!" I said he brought these for your teachers, ok? They're not for you. He gave them up pretty easily and just offered to help unwrap. Then turned to us and said we had to go because Santa Claus was in his home. We did have a present from a friend of Daniel's that we had to open - from Tirso. Those that know him know what it was...you guessed it - cheese. So we thought we'll let him open that. When we arrived at home he looked in every room for Santa. We thought he was looking for presents and gave him the one he could open. He opened it but kept asking where Santa was. We plan to go on Monday to check out where Santa is these days and find out when the heck he's coming to town! We have a calendar and are counting down the days.

Carolina is still testing out standing and cruising. She is more stable now but isn't letting go of furniture to venture out on her own. She will crawl between furniture rather than try to take a few steps. A few weeks ago people said she would walk any day...I didn't really believe it because she was so wobbly on her feet. These days she looks like it's just a matter of her making the decision to move forward. I actually think she could do it. When she's ready, I'm sure she will.

All the presents are wrapped and I'm not sure who's more excited, Xavi or me!

I also have a picture of him with his new hearing aids. I'll have to post those later. he is increasing the amount of time he wears them, but it's slow going.

The cousins - so cute!

So today Xavi saw a commercial for the Charlie Brown holiday movies and asked what that was. I said it's a Charlie Brown movie. He then asked to watch it, but it was his bedtime and, oh yeah, we don't have them. Plus, I've noticed they're not shown anymore on the major networks. What's up with that? I looked for "It's the Great Pumkin, Charlie Brown" on Halloween - nothing. I think the thanksgiving movie might have been shown but I didn't catch the time or day so we didn't watch it. So I told Xavi that we would have to wait until tomorrow because we didn't have it and I would look for it tonight. He asked again and as I started to give the same answer he interrupted - - "mami, stop talking, just say yes". I had to laugh but then I told him he shouldn't talk to mami like that.

Check out the growth chart for 9 month stats. They're not totally accurate, but they're close. I took them both to get a flu shot so it was a bit of an insane dr's visit. The next visit is for both again but I'll try to get accurate numbers and correct the chart.