"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.........