little penguins

We made the mistake of telling Xavi about our summer plans and now he asks every day, twice a day, when will he see his cousin Connor and his oma and grandpa. There isn't a whole lot of pressure on Connor, just play and hang out - maybe go to the beach and swim. Xavi seems happy with those plans. Oma and grandpa have a LOT to do. Oma has to bake cupcakes and cookies with him and grandpa has to take him to the camping, to sleep in a tent and on the boat to go fishing to catch the big fish! It's the first thing he says some days when he wakes up...like this am. 4.5 weeks and counting...as my friend Jenny would say, oy vey zmir!

As you can see he's talking a lot...and he pays attention to everything we say. Like when I told Daniel that I'd done a new workout routine at the gym and I kicked my butt. Xavi turned to me, very worried, and asked "Mami, why you kicked your own butt?"

Or when Daniel was wrestling with Xavi and said he was making a Xavi sandwich as he laid on top of him. Xavi laughed and asked me to be the chicken and Carolina to be the cheese because there was no stuff in the sandwich.

And he's taken to pointing out Daniel's white hair and letting everyone know that Daddy has white hair because he's old. Love it. Mami has none!

Carolina, on the other hand, just says no a lot. But it's darned cute when she says it. She actually says Xavi, crackers, Daniel, Daddy, Papi, Pauline (her best girlfriend at daycare) and a bunch of other words. I've heard her say mami a few times, but it's not often. She had her 15 month check up today and here are her stats: height- 30 1/4 inches (75%) and weight - 23lbs 1 1/2 oz (50%). I got her 12 month stats so I'll post them on the side bar.

This weekend we went to the reopening of the Oceanarium at the Shedd. It was fantastic. I highly recommend it. The penguin exhibit itself didn't change much but directly across it is a new play area that very closely resembles a penguin habitat. Rocks that kids can climb, an "iced" over sled, and a cave/tunnel. Kids can dress like penguins and waddle around or look for eggs to take to the nest! They have to take them between their feet! SO cute! Xavi loved it! Carolina threw the egg...like a ball...The eggs open to reveal newborn penguins (the baby penguins can not be removed from the egg, however, or they would be home with us now). There are tables across the dolphin exhibit so you can eat while you watch them. GO!

best mother's day present

little faces

We spent the afternoon at a spring/summer carnival on campus. The kids loved it! They had their faces painted...Xavi was very excited to be a tiger. Carolina was not thrilled with sitting still and thought the flowere were, eh ok...But check out that hair color, huh? What's up that?!?! No, not the mailman, as Daniel likes to joke.

By the way, I did have a hair clip in her hair when we started out that day. Not only did she yank it out, but she lost it! Next up, pics from mother's day. Just a sampler, there were over 70!

Pictures from Mother's day

I know I haven't posted in a long time! There are reasons for this. Life is busy with two kids...just ask my friend Jenny:

"I FINALLY have a minute to check e-mail without little people hollering in my ear. Next to the bed is a giant mountain of clean clothes that probably need to be washed again since they've
been sitting there getting progressively more all over the place since they were washed last month ... I don't think those clothes will ever
see a shelf of drawer again. I don't know what the hell I actually do all day but I do know that I don't have time to do anything other than
nurse the little man who is fast becoming a giant Pilsbury Dough boy! My dreams of sitting on the couch eating bonbons while catching up on LOST Seasons 4 and 5 during maternity leave are really pretty hilarious fantasies to me now."

I had to include that because it perfectly captures the laundry situation and ear splitting screams in our home. Those screams make it hard to actually have a coherent thought in my brain.

I'm only able to update the blog now because I have a couple of no show, delinquent students on my calendar this am AND my sister sent me these pictures from mother's day! It was a great day. We walked/ran the mother's day Y-Me race in the early morning and then had brunch with the Lopez side of the family. After nap, one of our students took a family portrait and a bunch of other great pictures. I'm so excited about the pics and I can't wait to frame them.

Yes, I know Carolina's hair is a mess. It's really long. I'm debating whether to cut it really short again or let it get long and put it in a pontytail every day...one that is way in the back so she can't reach it and let her hair loose!