Band Aid

As is common this time of year, I tend to reflect on the past year and begin wondering what the next has in store. It has been a magical year in many respects--mostly, of course, because 2008 brought "little" Noah home to complete our little family.
2008 is also a year that has brought much anxiety about the economy, jobs...etc. I know many people (myself included) are "cutting back" this year on Christmas. By "cutting back," though I hope we mean in the commercial sense and not in the spiritual sense. Despite the uncertainties of today, this Christmas is a light that shines brightly and guides us on the path to the hope of 2009 and beyond.
For some, this hope is all they have. I think of the song "Do They Know It's Christmas" that was done in 1984 by several muscians under the name BAND AID. Every year that song really puts things in perspective for me.
I am putting it on this blog to remind myself NOT to cut back on the spirit of Christmas....the spirit of hope.

Oh--and by the way, my dear cousin Karin will appreciate this--there is LOTS of footage of Duran Duran and our beloved Simon LeBon!! I'm sorry, but I still think they are HOT!!!!

Bowling!

Yes, toddlers CAN in fact bowl! Aunt Claire took the boys bowling with their friends, A,D&C yesterday. I believe Alex bowled an 88 and Noah was right behind him coming in strong with a 79!!! Noah seems to have a true love for the game....er...at least for the bowling ball, as he spent some quality time hugging his bowling ball.

Speaking of hugging....poor Inky (our little 10 pound yorkipoo)was almost hugged to death last night by Noah. At one point I looked under the table to find Noah standing there "hugging" Inky's rear legs while lifting his rear end off the floor. Needless to say, Inky was NOT amused. Noah has so much love to give, but (like everything else) he loves with gusto!!! He gives a new meaning to the phrase: "Love hurts."

Weekend Happenings

Another jam packed weekend has come and gone. Alex had TWO days in row with no potty accidents-YEA!! On Saturday, Coici, Alex and I baked cookies while Noah supervised. Alex LOVED cutting out the cookies with the cookie cutter, but it was killing him not being able to eat the raw dough. That evening, Ms. Amy and Eduardo came over and we "decorated" cookies. Translation: The guateposse ate all the decorations while the adults tried to limit the slobber on the cookies. So, to those of you who will be recipients of these special cookies....um....enjoy! I heard that little Eduardo was as wired as my boys were that evening.....gotta LOVE the sugar rush!
Sunday was a whirlwind of activity with church, a birthday party in Bloomington and then dinner at Casa Willis. The birthday party was for Ben, who turned the ripe 'ol age of 8. It was held at Wonderlab, which is much like The Children's Museum here in Indy--my little men had a BLAST!!!! It was great--LOTS of things to explore, room to run, AND cake and ice cream to boot!!! Alex was so loaded on sugar that he babbled the entire way home from Bloomington (one and a half hours)! Noah just crashed...passed out cold... After a WONDERFUL dinner at Casa Willis and more play time with Eduardo, we all crashed happily! We are truly blessed to have so many good friends!!!
Here is what I learned this weekend: The amount of fun one has on the weekend is inversely proportional to the amount of laundry that gets done!!!
Tommorrow: Bowling balls....stay tuned!

Twas the Night Before Navidad

'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the casa,
not a creature was stirring - ¡Caramba! ¿Qué pasa?
Los niños were tucked away in their camas,
some in long underwear, some in pijamas,
while hanging the stockings with mucho cuidado,
in hopes that old Santa would feel obligado,
to bring all children, both buenos and malos,
a nice batch of dulces and other regalos.
Outside in the yard there arose un gran grito,
and I jumped to my feet like a frightened cabrito.
I ran to the window and looked out afuera,
and who in the world do you think that he era?
Saint Nick in a sleigh and a big red sombrero,
came dashing along like a loco bombero.
And pulling his sleigh instead of venados,
were eight little burros approaching volando.
I watched as they came and this quaint little hombre,
was shouting and whistling and calling by nombre:
''Ay Pancho, ay Pepe, ay Cuco, ay Beto
, ay Chato, ay Chopo, Maruco, y Nieto!''
Then standing erect with his hands on his pecho,
he flew to the top of our very own techo,
with his round little belly like a bowl of jalea,
he struggled to squeeze down our old chimenea.
Then huffing and puffing at last in our sala,
with soot smeared all over his suit de gala,
he filled all the stockings with lively regalos,
none for the niños that had been very malos.
Then chuckling aloud, seeming very contento,
he turned like a flash and was gone como el viento,
and I heard him exclaim, y ¡esto es verdad!
Merry Christmas to all, ¡y Feliz Navidad!

Playing Catch-Up!

Wow, time really has a way of flying by!

POTTY TRAINING UPDATE: Alex's progress can be best described as consistently inconsistent. Sunday he managed to be accident-free ALL DAY. Dry through nap and even while we went out for about an hour. He is back to about one accident a day, which is really not that bad!

Oma and Opa came to visit over the weekend, so we had a great time with them. Opa, Alex and I went to church Sunday morning and left Noah at home with Oma. When we got back, I was not sure who needed a nap more: Noah or Oma!

Noah and Alex also got to experience their very first St. Nikolas Day. We put the boys' boots outside Saturday night and by Sunday morning they were filled with treats!!!






For those of you who are unfamiliar with this German tradition, see
http://www.stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=23

Alex was so excited about the treats, but his true fascination later became the boots themselves. I will update the blog later with photos....stay tuned!

Animal House

Tonight Alex built another elaborate Lego Masterpiece complete with every farm/zoo/wild animal known to man. He looked at me proudly and said, "Mommy! Animal House." How true....on so many levels.

***We now interupt this blog to bring you breaking news on the Potty Training Front****

IT'S GOING REALLY WELL!! Only one accident today, and it was because Alex was too engrossed in the above-mentioned Animal House. He was playing with legos, stood up, peed, and returned to playing like nothing had happened. Noah looked at him totally horrified!!!! After I picked my jaw up off the ground, I attempted to whisk him away to the potty. His reaction: LOUD screaming and crying of "MOMMY PWAY!!" I think this a true "phase" of potty training--how to stop playing long enough to go potty.

Noah is handling the potty training thing rather well. When Alex or I say "potty," he screams "Puppy" and runs and hugs Maya. I have tried to tell him that we are NOT saying "Puppy," but really....rationalizing with an 18-month old....not so easy! So, everytime Alex yells "potty," the dogs get extra lovins!!

Buenos Noches

There comes a time in every man's life.....

...when he has to learn to make peepee in the potty. For Alex, that time is NOW. That's right--he is officially in training--POTTY TRAINING! On Monday, my little boy turned in his Elmo diaper for brand spankin new "big boy" undies (ok...so they have Elmo on them, but still....).
Claire swears by the "cold turkey" approach (straight to underwear....pull ups only for naps and nightime), so I'm willing to go with it (especially since SHE is the one who will be with him the first five days of this little adventure!)
I am afraid to write this, but he has done FABULOUSLY making both #1 and #2 in the potty!!!!! That is not to say that he is accident-free, but he DOES seem to be getting the idea (must find wood to knock on....). My evenings go something like this:
ALEX: "MOMMY!!!! PEE PEE!!!"

MOMMY (hurling pots and pans off the stove and leaping over dogs (and poor litte Noah) in an attempt to get him to the bathroom): "ok...you need to make peepee in the potty...want a story?"

ALEX: "All done" (note...no peeing)

Repeat at least 23 times until....that moment....when he gets "that look" on his face and ACTUALLY goes! Priceless!

Of course poor little Noah just wants to be in on the action, so if I leave the door open, I end up having to pry Noah off of Alex's lap--I've learned to close the door.

I will keep you posted on Alex's progress....and the number of pairs of underwear we go through in a day. So far, that number is 4. But tomorrow is another day.

"Baybawl" and "dada"

Elmo and Bocceli

This post is for Coici Donna, who HATES...ok....strongly dislikes Elmo but ADORES Andrea Bocceli. I bet she wishes she were Elmo now! HA!!!!
Alex and Noah both enjoy watching this before going Night-Night.

And the best part??? I FIGURED OUT HOW TO PUT A VIDEO INTO THE BLOG! (I am going to have a lot of fun with this!)

Diego Tiiiiiiiiiime?

No, the title is not a typo. Those are the words that I (and I am sure Claire as well) listen to ALL DAY LONG. As a rule, the boys don't watch much T.V., but every evening at 7:30, I let them watch Go, Diego, Go! Alex ADORES Diego, and his whole day seems to revolve around just WHEN is "Diego time!" He asks at least every fifteen minutes (Claire-you can correct me if I am wrong), but the WAY he says it is HI-LARIOUS. It's not whiny or obnoxious, but he just sorta drags out that last word.
So, no Little Alex, it is NOT Diego Time (yet), but I just had to tell everyone how adorable you really can be!

Mommy

From Bad to....Better!

Every now and then it seems that the stars align just right to make the world....well, crappy. That happened this past weekend. Noah got one of his signature stomach bugs, which meant LOTS of poopy diapers and a VERY mad Noah. The poor little man got a diaper rash unlike anything I have ever seen. (I swear if an adult got a rash that badly in that particular part of anatomy, that person would be given narcotics and admitted to a local hospital!) We spent the entire weekend inside the house just hunkered down....as lovely as that sounds, it was exhausting. Alex would run Noah over yelling "running!" This of course led Noah into even MORE dramatic episodes of screetching and crying.
By Sunday evening everyone was in better spirits, so the boys and I played with legos. Alex built an airport, as shown below...after 48 hours of being a little terror, he finally got into something CONSTRUCTIVE instead of DESTRUCTIVE! So, while Alex was builing, I defended the airport from Hurricane Noah which was continually circling and threatening to demolish the whole project.

Just when I thought we were all on the mend, I ended up with Noah's little bug. I did not go to work today and just laid low. Happily I am feeling much better. To top it off, the boys and I had a great evening.
I bundled them up and we took a walk around the block...it only took us an hour! While we were walking, Alex pointed to several trash cans on the curb and excitedly yelled, "TRASH!!" as if he had just seen Diego. It took me a minute to figure out this odd fascination with garbage, but then it came to me...Oscar the Grouch lives in a trash can. Of course at this point, my dear son had his head in the can yelling "hello!!!???" It took a lot of convincing, but I finally pursuaded him that Oscar was not home. I hope this little phase passes soon. Tomorrow is trash day--I am NOT letting him out of the house!

In Honor of National Adoption Month

Trip to Australia
Deciding to have a baby is like planning a trip to Australia. You've heard it's a wonderful place, you've read many guidebooks and feel certain you're ready to go. Everyone you know has traveled there by plane. They say it can be a turbulent flight with occasional rough landings, but you can look forward to being pampered on the trip.
So you go to the airport and ask the ticket agent for a ticket to Australia. All around you, excited people are boarding planes for Australia. It seems there is no seat for you; you'll have to wait for the next flight. Impatient, but anticipating a wonderful trip, you wait—and wait—and wait.
Flights to Australia continue to come and go. People say silly things like, "Relax. You'll get on a flight soon." Other people actually, get on a plane and then cancel their trip, to which you cry "It's not fair!" After a long time the ticket agent tells you, "I'm sorry, we're not going to be able to get you on a plane to Australia. Perhaps you should think about going by boat."
"By BOAT," you say. "Going by boat will take a very long time and it costs a great deal of money. I really had my heart set on going by plane." So you go home and think about not going to Australia at all. You wonder if Australia will be as beautiful if you approach it by sea rather than air. But you have long dreamed of this wonderful place, and finally you decide to travel by boat. It is a long trip, many months over much rough seas. No one pampers you. You wonder if you will ever see Australia. Meanwhile, your friends have flown back and forth to Australia two or three times, marveling about each trip.
Then one glorious day, the boat docks in Australia. It is more exquisite than you ever imagined, and the beauty is magnified by your long days at sea. You have made many wonderful friends during your voyage, and you find yourself comparing stories with others who also traveled by sea rather than by air.
People continue to fly to Australia as often as they like, but you are able to travel only once, perhaps twice. Some say things like, "Oh, be glad you didn't fly. My flight was horrible; traveling by sea is so easy."
You will always wonder what it would have been like to fly to Australia. Still, you know God blessed you with a special appreciation of Australia, and the beauty of Australia is not in the way you get there, but in the place itself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TY_FpV05n-c

Boo Boo

Poor Alex. One week ago he was sitting on the kitchen floor with his hands in the track of the sliding door (unbeknownst to me). I opened the door...and well, you can see the result below. His middle finger bled a lot at the time, but I patched him up, and he seemed fine.

Over the last couple of days, his finger was looking worse (nail bed was grey, bleeding a lot, puffy...etc), so today we went to see Dr. Collings. It appears that most of his nail has been pulled from the nail bed, and he is going to lose it very soon. She put him on antibiotics for the brewing infection and put a splint on his finger to prevent the nail from getting snagged on anything. Alex was SUCH a big boy during the whole ordeal, and he has been a champ about keeping his splint on his finger.

This is his first "major" boo boo, so I just had to document it!! Hopefully this will be it for a LONG time.

Hasta Luego!

Fall Fun

This evening we enjoyed our last outdoor romp in warm weather. It was 70 degrees, and the leaves were pouring off of the trees. We raked up a couple of piles and just played in the leaves. Aunt Claire tried to get Alex to throw leaves on Mommy, but he wouldn't do it (smart boy)-He had no problem trying to bury Noah, however. Eduardo and Mr. Dan came to play too!!! It was a great time--so simple, yet so much fun! Tomorrow the rain will fall and so will the temperatures...but, I can't complain....afterall, it IS November!

My son...The Godfather

I took this picture of Alex while he was intently watching his nightly Diego show. I can't help but think of the phrase: "I'm gonna make you an offer you can't refuse." Is there a Guatemalan Mafia!!!???

Finally!

Ok...I have been getting a lot of flack for not posting in awhile....BUT I have a good excuse: We were in Florida for 5 days, and um....that's all I got.

Our trip to see the Florida crew was great fun. Noah actually did not make people want to jump out of the plane with his screaming this time. (God bless Benadryl!!!) We spent one day at the beach, and despite the cold water, Alex decided to walk into the Gulf of Mexico as if he owned the place. We also spent one evening at the Top of the Bay Oktoberfest. Alex ran around with Ben and Noah tried his best to keep up. You should see Alex do the Chicken Dance--he has gotten really good at it!!

The other great event, of course, was Halloween. The boys had a great time Trick-or-Treating at friends' homes. We even stopped by to see Abby and Claire--both girls were totally adorable!!! By the end of the evening, Alex really got the hang of "chk-chk-chk-chk.TREAT"-ing.

Otherwise, we are all doing well (a few boo boo's aside) as we enter the winter months. We have been blessed with GORGEOUS weather lately, so the boys actually got to go to the zoo with Claire today. It is just getting harder to adjust to the shorter days--less playtime outside for Mommy!! : (

Well, on this Election Night, I wish you all good night!
And the winner is.........

Parties Parties and MORE Parties!!!!

Wow...it is truly amazing how fast time flies. These pictures are from the Children's Museum Member's Preview Party for the haunted house (this year's theme: Haunted train!!). We had so much fun at the festivities that we never made through the haunted house. We will plan on doing that tomorrow--during the "friendly hours" of course--lights on and happy gouls!!

Alex loves to dress in his costume as a train engineer, and he happily walks are around making choo choo noises. Noah is clueless about the whole Halloween thing, but he gets lots of giggles dressed as a railroad crossing signal! We entered the costume contest at the museum and did not even place!!! I think the whole thing is rigged since this little girl dressed as an ice cream cone (P-lease!!!!) won in TWO categories. Politics. Good thing I am not competitive (HA!).

This evening we went to ZOOBOO with Coici--what a blast! [we are getting a lot of use out of our costumes] Alex did his first official trick-or-treating through the zoo, although his "trick-or-treat" sounds a lot like "chicknchick"--whatever works!!!!

Noah had his speech evaluation yesterday, and we discovered that he actually has about 7 "words." His best word is probably "more" [wonder why!?] He may need a little speech therapy since at his age he is supposed to have 15-20 words.

We are gearing for a fab weekend--visit from Oma and Opa, haunted train, AND....The Willis Family Pumpkin Sacrifice Party. Technically it is a pumpkin CARVING party, but let's be honest....I have NO talent in this arena. Hopefully Opa will still be here and can help the boys carve a respectable pumpkin. Regardless, we are really looking forward to hanging out with our wonderful neighbors and friends. Alex just loves "Eddie" (the Willis' little man from Guat)--it is going to be so much fun having such good friends right across the street. We are truly blessed in our little house on Kenwood! Que lindo!!! (Ok, so I probably slaughtered that word in spanish--feel free to correct me!)

Con Amor,

Caren

Stoney Creek Farm

What a totally fun day we had today!! Opa came to see us so we decided to spend the morning at Stoney Creek Farm. We picked up Coici and off we went to Noblesville (we seem to be spending quite a bit of time up there lately!). Stoney Creek Farm has a LOT going on this time of year for their Fall Festival: outdoor games, a pumpkin choo choo, pony rides, hay ride, pumpkin patch, gift shops and a nursery.

It was an absolutely beautiful day, so we started with a hayride to the pumpkin patch where the boys "chose" their pumpkins.

After a romp through the HUGE hay pile, we played on the playground and then rode the pumpkin choo choo!! I think Alex like the the hayride the best, and Noah was a huge fan of just being able to run around unrestrained. I am proud of Alex--he rode the pumpkin choochoo all by himself, although he still had a worried look on his face if he could not see us. He is definitely becoming more adventurous and daring. Then there is Noah--no fear....none....he threw himself down the hay stack, threw himself down the slide and probably would have single handedly wrestled the cow calf in the animal barn if I would have let him.

After a nice long nap for all, we went to our favorite spot--Holliday Park and played on the playground and even took a little hike on the trails. Alex is truly amazing....the kid can walk, run, and climb and not get tired. We ended our day with dinner at Guatelinda--which meant TWO Famosa's for Mommy since Opa was driving!!!

The boys are now tucked in and sleeping like logs....and it's time for Mommy to do the same!!

Buenos Noches!