walking and talking

The things that come out of Xavi's mouth ...This am when Daniel gave me a hug and kiss, Xavi said, "Mami and daddy, no hugging and kissing. It's very dangerous here, you could fall."

Enjoy a video of Caro "walking" with her baby stroller. She went pretty long with it and I think decided that she likes this walking thing. She just might have turned a corner. She also points to things she wants then holds her hand out to receive what she asked for. She gives us things when we hold our hand out to her too. She's also mastered the high 5 - a very important skill. We're working on the pound, very significant, just ask the Obamas.

PS We haven't lost track of time...We remember that we have less than a month to plan her first birthday. This time around we're planning something more low key. We've learned our lesson about first b-day parties. Plus with two kids it could turn into a nightmare of a time trying to keep track of them among many people. We'll do a small playdate with friends from daycare and dinner with family. Very excited.

new earrings!

Finally, Caro's earrings match! She'd been wearing two different earrings for...too long. She had yanked one off soon after she got her ears pierced and has been wearing mismatched earrings since then. These are cute butterfly earrings with safety backs (they screw on!). She'll be wearing these for a LONG time. It took me more than an hour to get them on.

Plus a picture of them "watching" Horton Hears a Who!

sharing, pigtails, school, and potty news

Some cute pictures of Xavi being nice and sharing with his sister and some of my inability to figure out what to do with Caro's hair. I think the most recent hairdo is a winner and we'll stick to that until her hair grows a bit more. BTW, the recent do is the one in the green sweater. I hope you approve!

PS - Xavi had his playdate for nursery 3 today! It went well. He was a bit shy but at least there was no crazy melt down. One kid did have one and I felt bad for the mom. I'd had visions of that being me. Teacher's rec is due next Thursday. Then we just wait. He has a few friends from his current school applying and we hope they get in and will be in his class!

Carolina has no teeth and refuses to walk. She actually looks scared when she's taken a few steps on her own. We'll see how that goes.

Xavi stopped wearing underwear - too many accidents. He pees pretty regularly in the potty, but the other one is still impossible to figure out. Maybe there is a switch for that one. Peeing is just a matter of setting a timer. If we forget, accident, if we don't, he's great. How do we turn that poop switch on!? The only thing that works is if we leave him in his birthday suit. But for obvious reasons we can't do that all the time. Ok, we'll keep to this plan until...whenever...

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!