Familia Nuttall

Nuttall Family Pics: Logan Square 2008

2008-12-19T12:46:00.000-08:00

Our good friend Laura Nash took some great family pics for us in October that I'm finally getting around to posting! The Logan Square fountains are just a couple blocks from our apartment and in the summer the kids had fun walking around in the water. The fountains have been turned off for winter now, but the kids can still run around and play where the water used to be.

Leaf Power

2008-12-19T12:39:00.000-08:00

Fun at the fountain

2008-12-19T12:36:00.000-08:00

Logan Square Family Pics

2008-12-19T12:31:00.000-08:00

We like to boogie

2008-12-18T19:31:00.000-08:00

Last day of music class this semester with Mr. John--good times.

Short week

2008-12-18T19:28:00.000-08:00

Dec. 15-21, 2008
Monday, Monday. Lately on Monday mornings we’ve been going to the Please Touch Museum and it’s a good time to go because there are no school groups then. Levi loves running over to the rocket ship section and looking for the Buzz Lightyear toy that they have hanging from the ceiling. Today there was a new airplane exhibit for older kids and Isaac thought it was amazing because he could pedal with his feet and go up and down on an airplane ride (it’s just like the one at Chucky Cheese in Houston)

The boys also really enjoy playing in the art room at the museum and getting to paint with paint brushes to their heart’s content. Isaac has finally moved on from painting rainbows and now his new thing is apple trees. Levi is into swirling together as many colors as possible and getting really messy.

This was the last week of music classes with Mr. John through WKC. It’s been a fun distraction on Monday afternoons. Isaac really gets a kick out of dancing with the colors and playing instruments. Levi usually likes running around to the music, but he fell asleep on the way to class and I had to wake him up so he was Mr. Grumpapotomus the whole time.

On Tuesday morning Kim McKay came over and we swapped cribs—she’s going to lend us a bedside portacrib that we can use for the new baby and we’re lending her our bigger portacrib that she can use with her baby who is now about 8 months old.

The boys wanted to make Christmas cookies to give to their friends this week and I like cooking with them because its good language practice—we’ll say the ingredients in English and Spanish and then their favorite song to sing while they mix it up is “bate bate chocolate”

Miraculously Isaac is not afraid of the beater anymore. He’ll climb up on the chair and help turn on the beater and then stand there for a while to mix things up.

Levi will just sit with a pile of books around him and “read”—its so fun to watch him turn the pages and repeat phrases that he knows from the stories.

Wednesday morning I drove all of my boys to the airport to send them off to Utah for a few days. I can’t travel because I’m 35 weeks pregnant, but I really needed a break and my cousin Lori gave me the idea of having James take the boys on a trip without me. I miss them a ton, but it will be very nice to “nest,” rest, and get ready for the baby.

Santa and Cookies

2008-12-18T19:17:00.000-08:00

Sugar week

2008-12-18T19:13:00.000-08:00

Dec. 8-Dec. 14, 2008

We went to an LDSSA Christmas party on Monday night over at the Sorenson’s house and it was a great turn out. One of the single guys dressed up as Santa Claus and came down to the playroom and divvied out candy canes to all of the kids. Isaac and Levi were in heaven.

For the last day of ASL/Spanish class, the moms in the class got together and gave me a $50 gift certificate to Barnes and Nobles. That was really cool of them. I’ll miss doing the class next semester, but I’m sure I’ll also be pretty overwhelmed with baby number three.

Levi has learned the word “borrow” from Isaac and today when we visited Collin, he wanted to “borrow” Collin’s toy car—“can I borrow this Collin?” It amazes me how clearly he asks for things now.

The boys watch Toy Story 2 in Spanish so now they can say “Al infinito, y mas alla!”—gotta love those super hero phrases.

Wednesday morning the boys were beside themselves with excitement because it was the big day of Jordan’s birthday party. They had fun making gingerbread houses, eating pizza and playing with all of their toys.

It was rainy and cold on Thursday morning but we braved the weather to go check out Isaac’s elementary school for next year. It’s supposed to be one of the best public elementary schools in the city. I was really hoping he would get into a really cool Spanish immersion charter school called Independence Charter but we didn’t do so hot in the lottery—I called yesterday and they told me that we were number 250 on the waiting list. Ay caramba. I guess there are a lot of people trying to get into that school.

Isaac asked me tonight why there are so many different Santa Clauses. . .he’s starting to catch on pretty quick. I told him that Santa needs a lot of helpers and he was half way satisfied with that answer. Then he wanted to know if he could call Santa on my cell phone and ask for a snowboard for Christmas.

Levi is getting good at his colors in Spanish—when he says “azul” it makes me laugh because he sticks his lips out and its pretty cute.

Saturday we had a big Wharton Kids Club Christmas party at our place and the Nash’s. We started things out down here with cookie decorating and crafts for the kids and then after an hour everyone shifted upstairs for pics with Santa and Marina’s Russian gift on a rope game. Amazingly, it worked out great and there were no major mishaps. Isaac poured half of the bottle of sprinkles on one of his sugar cookies and both of the boys were on a major sugar high most of the night.

Ahwww. . .

2008-12-18T19:10:00.000-08:00

Meet Mr. Peacock

2008-12-18T19:08:00.000-08:00

Isaac and Levi have a new buddy at the zoo that they have dubbed "Mr. Peacock." The boys really wanted him to come home with us, but before I had to explain why he couldn't, Mr. Peacock made it easy on me and flew over the fence to chat with the Giant Galapagos Tortoises.

Zoo time

2008-12-18T19:03:00.000-08:00

I love this pic with Isaac on one side and the squirrel on the other. Mostly, I'm amazed that the squirrel is actually in the pic because he was moving pretty fast.

The tiger looked like he wanted to play ball with the boys. . .

Levi's nose meets a green marker

2008-12-18T18:59:00.000-08:00

Dec. 1-Dec.7, 2008
The book of the week has definitely been Max and Ruby’s ABC’s. Both of the boys love it because its not your standard ABC book—it uses the alphabet letters to tell the story of Max’s ants escaping from the ant farm and how Max and Ruby try everything to escape the ants. Its actually pretty funny.

We went to the Please Touch Muesum on Monday morning with Kim and Carrie and their boys and if was fun—except for when I briefly lost both boys in the Alice in Wonderland section. There are so many mazes and dividers over there that its hard to see where they are.
Isaac wanted to write a letter to Santa Claus so he wrote out all of the letters of Santa’s name and then I helped him make a list of what he wanted which included:
1. a watering can for a beanstalk
2. magic powder to make the beanstalk grow
3. a pretend gumball machine from Target
4. a new Max and Ruby dvd
5. a new Spanish storybook
6. new paints for painting
7. that’s enough

Thanks to James coming up with the idea of eating string cheese on a fork, the boys now both insist on eating string cheese with a fork and calling it “silly cheese”

Levi loves to eat bananas and green peppers whole. He does not like it if I cut them and hey—who can complain if that’s what he’s eating. Isaac on the other hand has decided he’s allergic to the smell of vegetables and it drives me nuts.

Wednesday morning Rachel Jackson invited us over to celebrate Maggie’s birthday and the kids had a blast decorating and eating Christmas cookies. There was also pizza and veggies and Isaac kept saying, “mom, this is the best party ever!” The boys actually woke up super early and wanted to go over to the party right after breakfast, but I took them on a detour to the Please Touch Museum. I’m SO glad that it opens at 9 o’clock instead of 10 like everywhere else. It’s really nice to have a place to take the kids early in the morning when we just need to get out. Today they spent most of the time in the art room and Isaac and Levi painted and mixed colors with cue tips.

Levi has discovered whip cream and he can’t get enough of the stuff.

For Spanish class on Thursday we did Kool-aid playdough and practiced the names of shapes in Spanish. We also did the caminar song and Levi and Isaac had fun dancing with Shrey. I taught everyone the Corre Caballo song and Levi kept asking for “mas caballo”—I think we probably did it about 5 times.

For book club we discussed The Book Thief and it was a pretty amazing book—I didn’t actually finish it yet, but it is told in one of the most creative formats I’ve ever read (the narrarator is death). It’s also a great book for learning about World War II history. Mostly it was fun just to have a girls night out and have James put the boys to bed.

The boys have been rocking out with their homemade band instruments lately. They look so cut playing instruments together. Their favorite song right now is “You got a friend in me” from the Toy Story soundtrack. Isaac tries to sing along with the lyrics, but it’s funny to hear what his version of the words are sometimes. For example, instead of “You’ve got problems and I’ve got ‘em too,” Isaac will say—“You’ve got problems and I gotta toot.”

Friday morning –the boys insisted on going to the zoo even though it was a pretty chilly day. We had the whole place to ourselves except for the school groups that were there. Luckily the crocodile/reptile house was warm and cozy and so was the treehouse so we spent most of our time in those to places. There was also a peacock wandering around outide that the boys befriended and dubbed “Mr. Peacock.” Isaac really wanted to take him home with us.

Isaac is still intent on getting a little sister. When I reminded him that he was getting another little brother he said, “but mom, where’s the door in your tummy so that a sister can get in there too.”

I took Isaac to his first “drop off” b-day party on Saturday. It was really weird to drop him off at a party and not have to stick around to watch him. It was a Transformer theme party for one of the kids, Griffin, in his preschool class and he had a blast.

The boys started spontaneously playing Ring Around the Rosie with each other on Sunday night during bath time. It was uncontrollably cute. It is so fun to see them playing together more now and really communicating with each other.

Major food break through with Isaac—I’m being more strict about making him try new things and finish his food even if he says he doesn’t like it. Tonight I made a chicken/rice dish for the boys and Isaac didn’t want it but I told him he couldn’t have anything else to eat until he finished his small bowl. After 2 hours he finally finished it, but not without ALOT of whining.

Happy Thanksgiving

2008-11-30T18:38:00.000-08:00

Nov.24-Nov.30, 2008
Cold Monday—lots of role playing games with the boys. We only made it out of the apartment for music class and by that time the boys were very ready to get out and run around. We left early and I let them collect sticks for a while in front of the boy scout building. The boys both wanted to wear their superman outfits to class.

Isaac has fully entered the “WHY” stage, except for most of the time he says “how” instead of “why.” He’ll say things like “how is it that we don’t have a swimming pool on our roof” And “how did I not want to be reverent in church?”

Levi surprises me everyday with how well he understands and communicates. After getting home from playing with his friend Jordan today he said, “mom, I want Buzz lighyear shoes like Jordan. We need to go shopping for Buzz Lightyear shoes. He cracks me up.

I had my OB appointment on Tuesday morning and she said everything looks good. I had partial placenta previa on my first ultrasound, but the ultrasound they did on Friday showed that everything was okay now. The baby’s weight is fiftieth percentile and there’s plently of fluid in the womb. I also passed my glucose test, Dr. Prilou did say that since my iron count was low in my last blood test, I need to start taking an iron supplement in addition to my prenatal vitamin.

Isaac really loves elevators. Today he wanted to go over to the Central Library just so that he could push the letter “R” for roof. We went up there, but all of the doors to get out on the roof were locked. Isaac loves asking people what floor they’re going to and pushing the button for them.

Levi is obsessed with popcorn, but he’ll still eat lots of other good foods like cucumbers, asparagus, baby tomatoes, and carrots. I really wish that Isaac would eat vegetables like Levi!! Isaac drives me crazy with his eating habits and I know that I’m part of the problem because I’ve let him get away with it.

Isaac seems very sensitive to my moods now and if I’m not smiling he’ll say, “mom, how is your mouth feeling?”—its kind of his subtle hint that I need to remember to smile.

Levi’s new favorite game is “momma cave.” He really enjoys pretending that the bed spread on Isaac’s bed is a cave and then getting tickled inside the “cave.”

We found the Toy Story 2 music soundtrack at the library and the boys love listening to track number four over and over and pretending to fly around the house like Buzz Lightyear. I really need to take a short video clip of it because it looks really funny to see them running all over the place with their hands stretched out in front of them.

Isaac wanted to know this week where the baby will come out of me. He wanted to know if the baby was coming out of my mouth—well not exactly. . .I remember when I was a kid I thought that babies came out of the belly button.

Thanksgiving!! We had a very nice Thanksgiving celebration with the Millers and the Hollingshaus family over at Edgewater Apartments. We had the big turkey dinner over there potluck style and then everybody came over to our place for games and dessert. Isaac and Levi had a blast playing with Jackson and Jordan. Isaac actually ate some of the turkey which was a total miracle. He also ate almost a pint of strawberries from the fruit salad. Levi was too distracted with the Buzz Lightyear toys to even think about eating.

Isaac asked me tonight why his friend Jackson had to go far away in May. He overhead John talking about his job offer in San Francisco and how they’ll be moving. It’s hard because Isaac’s really starting to understand things like people moving and not coming back. He kept saying, “I just want Jackson to stay here in Philadelphia with me!” It’s going to be really difficult for Isaac to lose a good friend. I’m really glad that he’s got Levi though and at least he has the security of knowing that they’ll stick together because they’re brothers.

Isaac and Levi and VERY excited about Christmas. Isaac is the most excited because he loves the idea of Santa Claus bringing presents. He can now say in Spanish “quiero ir al polo norte”

The boys woke up Sunday morning and decided that they wanted to pretend to be the Wiggles. Isaac was Greg, Levi was Anthony, I was Murray, and James was Jeff. It was hilarious because Isaac kept up pretty well with the Australian accent. He also insisted on wearing yellow to church so he could be in Greg colors. We compromised with a yellow t-shirt under a blue sweater.
I love my boys.

Vacuum Power

2008-11-30T18:31:00.000-08:00

Newsflash: Isaac has overcome his fear of vacuums and beaters. Unbelievable. This week he actually asked if he could help me vacuum and then he wanted to help use the beater to make cookies. This is major progress for him—he used to run from the room when he even heard the word vacuum or beater and he would shut the door to avoid the sound. I’m not sure what changed things for him—but I am very grateful to see this change in him. Es un milagro.

More fire station pics

2008-11-30T18:25:00.000-08:00

Firestation frenzy

2008-11-30T18:23:00.000-08:00

Nov. 17-Nov.23, 2008
Monday morning we headed over to Target to pick up a b-day present for our Chilean amigos. Matias and Pepita are having a joint b-day party on Saturday since their birthdays are so close together. I just had to grab a couple of things quickly since lingering in the toy section with my boys is a ticket to the land of meltdowns.

Mr. John the music teacher gave the kids cds at the end of class and Isaac and Levi can’t get enough of listening to it.

I went to Isaac’s preschool on Tuesday to teach a lesson at the end of class. All of the kids get to have their parent come in and teach something with them once during the year. I let Isaac show off his Spanish skills and we taught los numeros y los colores. We also did a fun treasure hunt at the end and I let Isaac find the “galletas” to share with all of his classmates.

Wednesday morning we went over to a local firestation for a fire house tour and the boys really got a kick out of that. The firefighters let them try out the firehose and pretend to drive the firetrucks. Levi kept saying, “there’s no fire” and then looking up at me for reassurance. He wasn’t sure why were were talking so much about fire and getting out the fire hoses when he couldn’t see any fire. Isaac was very excited about getting to climb up in the fire truck and pretending to drive it. He was hoping that the firefighters would let him take the truck for a spin around Philly.

Jackson and Jordan came over Wednesday night while Carrie went to a meeting and Isaac and Levi were in heaven with their buddies over. They wanted to do playdough and then take a bath together. Isaac is always disappointed when they can’t spend the night.
Thursday was just a long cold day. Isaac had school, but afterwards it was too cold and dark to go out again.
Friday morning we woke up to SNOW! It was snowing outside and I had to go to a doctor’s appointment. Isaac kept trying to catch the snowflakes on his tongue when we were walking outside.

We found Toy Story 2 at the library and Levi has become even more obsessed with Buzz and Woody. He really loves pretending to be Buzz Lightyear and jumping of the bed or bureau while yelling “To infinity and beyond!!!”

Saturday was a morning shopping marathon at Aldis and then I let the kids play and eat at Chickfilae and Ikea. They had a lot of fun a the Matias and Pepita fiesta and had chance to practice a lot of great words like “pastel” “regalo” “globo” and “juguetes.”

We had a Sunday afternoon Thanksgiving potluck at the Huntsman building for the Wharton Kids Club. Isaac and Levi started a game of red light green light with the other kids and they totally wore themselves out running back and forth in the lobby.

Superboys

2008-11-30T18:19:00.000-08:00

Isaac and Levi both love snacking on frozen yogurt tubes after they're done leaping tall buildings in a single bound.

bubbles. . .las burbujas

2008-11-30T18:09:00.000-08:00

The boys love taking bubble baths now. We got some Dora strawberry scented bubble bath and they love playing with the bubbles.

Petite Rouge

2008-11-30T18:06:00.000-08:00

Nov.10-Nov.16, 2008
Jessica Larson took care of the boys Monday morning while I went to the dentist—the boys absolutely love the chance to get to play with other people’s toys. Charlton has a Woody toy the Isaac really wanted to take home and Levi wanted to leave with a handful of cars. My kids would make great shoplifters.

Levi can say sentences now like, “there’s something in my eye” and “fix it mom” and “are you tired?” he always amazes me with his ability to communicate. I also got him to say “gracias por la manzana” when Laura gave him an apple when we stopped by her apartment on Tuesday.

I read Isaac the story of Petite Rouge that my brother gave me and Isaac was very interested in the part where Petite Rouge gives the alligator hot sauce. Isaac has chapping around is mouth from biting his lip and being out in the cold and after reading the hot sauce part of the story he his convinced that I gave him hot sauce because he says his mouth burns like the alligator’s.

They put the Christmas tree up in our building and both of the boys think it looks magical. Isaac asked if it was Christmas Eve yet. I told him we had to wait for Thanksgiving first and he got pretty upset about that and said, “no I don’t want Thanksgiving—just Christmas!!”

Isaac: “Mom, remember in far away time when you stepped on my foot.”—I thought it was interesting that he came up with the term “far away time” to describe “a long time ago”

Levi must be going through a growth spurt because he’s been pounding a lot of food lately.

Friday morning I took the boys in for their first visit to the pediatrician here to get their flu shots and for Levi’s 2 year old check up. I was pleasantly surprised with their new pediatrician. She seems really thorough and it was nice to have a doctor that didn’t just rush in and out of the room.

James took the boys to the Children’s Museum on Saturday and when he was putting away some of the pretend food at the marketplace he heard a parent screaming, “whose child is this!!!” Apparently, Levi had a sharing crisis with a little girl and he ended up biting her arm and leaving teeth marks—not good. James felt pretty bad about it. Its tough with Levi because for the most part he plays really well with other kids, but he will bite when he gets really frustrated.

Saturday afternoon here was a last beautiful breath of summer. It was in the mid-sixties and I took the boys on a long walk down the Schukill River Trail. Isaac wanted to explore a spooky forest so we went off the trail in a couple of places to go “exploring” and crunch through the fall leaves. I really wish that I would have remembered to bring the camera because it was the last glorious day of fall and I didn’t get any pics of all of the natural beauty here. At least we’ll be here for one more autumn season. We went past the art musueum for the first time and over to a place called waterworks that has some nice lookouts over the river and a place where you can feed the ducks. There were a few wedding parties going on and Isaac asked me if we were in “wedding land.”

Levi can finish the words when we say a prayer in Spanish and his new favorite Spanish word is “tiburones.” He and Isaac love pretending to be crocodiles and sharks.

Reading Stories with Momma

2008-11-09T18:58:00.000-08:00

Nov. 3- Nov. 10, 2008
Monday, Monday—Carrie had a doctor’s appointment so I watched Jackson and Jordan in the morning at our place. The boys had a ball dancing to the animal, freeze, and elephant songs. After music class we walked over to our Chilean friend’s apartment because the weather was actually pretty nice. Their kids were watching the Cars movie and Levi was enthralled.

Levi has become a much better eater now that he’s totally off of the milk bottle. He also poops a lot more too. . .

The other day Isaac said, “We have three houses—one in Houston, one in Arizona, and one in Philadelphia—we live all over the world mom!” I reminded him that we’d also lived in San Diego, but he looked at me like that was over the top.

Wednesday morning I was supposed to go to a Book Club to discuss A Long Way Gone—but I woke up late and I could not get momentum with the boys to get out the door. I still hadn’t quite finished the book so I let the boys play around the house while I finished reading it and WOW is it ever a powerful book. It’s about a boy soldier who lives through horrific cycles of war in Sierra Leone and it’s a very well written memoir. It’s shocking to think that so many kids have had to live through such chaos. It really turns your world upside down and makes you realize the priceless nature of the safety and comfort that most of us have in this country.

Carrie took care of the boys Thursday morning so that I could go on a school tour of the Independence Charter School over on 16th and Lombard Street. It’s a school that offers a Spanish immersion program so it would be a great opportunity for Isaac. The spots are filled by the lottery system though so it looks like he’d have a one in five chance of getting in.

Spanish class today (Thursday) was a bit chaotic but the kids liked the new cocodrilo song and pretending to be astronauts and blast off to the moon. Isaac actually came up with the astronaut game and all of the kids love it.

Our Chilean amigos came over on Friday morning and Isaac learned how to say “tenemos que tomar turnos” from Mattias.
Saturday afternoon James took the boys to a kids haircutting salon to get official hair cuts since my attempts at trimming were not keeping up with their hair growth. They both look a lot better—Levi looks so much more grown up!

Isaac will say sweet things out of the blue now like, “I think I love you momma” and “you look pretty momma”

The fall leaves here are incredibly GORGEOUS right now. All of the trees seems to have changed colors over night and there is a glorious canopy of yellows, oranges, and reds all over Philadelphia. The most beautiful spot I’ve been to so far is the park over by Isaac’s preschool. I took Levi to play there on Tuesday and we thoroughly enjoyed being surrounded by a kaleidoscope of colors.

Conversations with Isaac lately are hilarious. He said, “Mom, I want the baby to come out of your tummy. You must swallow a shovel so that the baby can dig his way out of your tummy okay?”
I told Isaac on Sunday that he was going to have two little brothers soon.
Isaac, “no mom, I want three little brothers.”
Me, “really, and how many sisters do you want?
Isaac, “one hundred!!”

Converstaion in Spanish with Isaac:
Isaac, “mama, tu eres muy alta!”
Me, “si, y tu eres bajo.”
Isaac, “y tu eres arriba tambien mama”
Me, “tu eres chistoso Isaac”

Levi’s Spanish is more receptive than productive right now, but he keeps up just fine—especially when our Chilean friends come over. He loves saying “Buenos Dias” and “Adios”

Isaac is all about counting all the way to one hundred these days. He especially likes counting to one hundred with the parachute during Spanish class which can also be kind of annoying when everyone else would prefer to stop at ten.

Levi is the ultimate energizer bunny. He gets such a kick out of rough housing with James. James and the boys have invented a new game called “zip, zip” where the boys come running and then leap into James’ arms and then he tosses them on the bed so that they bounce really high.

Tiger and pirate smiles

2008-11-09T18:55:00.000-08:00

Wearing the big shoes

2008-11-09T18:54:00.000-08:00

Levi still loves wearing his tiger hat and he especially loves trying to walk around in James' shoes.

Trunk or Treat at the church

2008-11-09T18:46:00.000-08:00

Just when you thought Halloween was over. . .our church had a kids "trunk or treat" activity on the day after Halloween so the kids got to dress up one more time and loved it.

Trick or Treating on Halloween

2008-11-09T18:43:00.000-08:00

We took the boys trick or treating to the town houses around our apartment building. Needless to say, they think Halloween is the coolest holiday ever.

Halloween Party at Isaac's school

2008-11-09T18:40:00.000-08:00

Isaac's preschool had a Halloween party on Wednesday and I helped out with the morning activities.

Here's the update on weekly craziness. . .

Oct.27-Nov 2, 2008
Isaac really enjoys the music class that we go to on Mondays. There’s a song about animals waking up in the morning and Mr. John always asks Isaac what animal he wants to sing about and he says “a dragon!”

Isaac always insists on pushing the Basement or Sub-basement button in the elevator. He also likes pushing other numbers when he can get away with it too.

The weather was miserable outside on Tuesday—the world series game even got postponed in the middle of the game because of the constant rain. I was surprised that 3 moms actually made it to Spanish class. It was small but we had a good time learning the playtime ASL/Spanish vocab.

Wednesday morning I took the boys to the Please Touch museum and they had a blast. We discovered the playdough/painting room and they were in heaven.

Thursday was a Halloween party at Isaac’s school and I volunteered at their mini “carnival.” A few of the mom’s set up stations like cookie decorating, mask making, stories, etc. I had the kids play a basketball game and read a Halloween story with them. It was fun to see Isaac interacting with the other kids in his preschool class. The teacher brought some dry ice and poured root beer on it inside a plastic black cauldron for the kids and they all thought that was magical. At the end when all of the mom’s came to pick everyone up, the kids sang a couple of cute Halloween songs. I was impressed at how well Isaac knew the words! He was a very cute pirate.

Thursday afternoon I took the kids over to campus and we helped out at the bake sale that Mandy and I organized for Kids Club. James distracted the kids so I could try to sell what was left of the cookies, muffins, etc. I was amazed to do the finally tally and realize that we had raised over a thousand dollars!!! $1055 to be exact. Last year they made $500 so we doubled expectations. Pretty cool. And then the Phillies won the world series early Thursday night—definitely a day for celebration.

Friday was kind of a rough day—I think I was feeling grumpy from lack of sleep and a long week of not seeing that much of James. We muddled through the morning—usually our Chilean friends come over, but with the craziness in the streets due to the Phillies parade, it didn’t work out. The afternoon got better when I took the kids over to the science museum. We discovered a new section we hadn’t seen before called Sir Isaac Newton’s workshop.

Our ward had a trunk or treat party on Saturday so the boys got to indulge in the Halloween festivities at least one more time. Before the dishing out of the candy though there was a get together inside with chili, corn muffins and fruit. The boys ran around the church and Levi got a hold of two corn muffins and managed to distribute the crumbs in an artistic pattern through the building hallways. Needless to say I spent a good chunk of time vaccuming it all up.

On Sunday I helped teach the 10 and 11 year old girls in primary. As part of the lesson I asked them what they would do to get ready if Jesus was coming to their house. A couple of them gave basic answers like clean their rooms and be nice to their brothers and sisters, but one of the girls said, “Well, the first thing I would do is make popcorn. Then I would get out some candy—but not too much candy because Jesus wouldn’t like that. Then I would find some good movies to watch with him.”

Levi is all about participating in Isaac’s role playing games these days. He’ll say “I’m Buzz Lightyear and your Woody and Isaac is T-Rex.” He also likes to be baby Jaguar and have me be Diego.

Pirates on a sugar high

2008-11-09T18:35:00.000-08:00

Both of the boys are feeling the sugar buzz after hanging out at the student family Halloween party.

WKC Halloween party

2008-11-09T18:33:00.000-08:00

On the Friday before Halloween the Wharton Kids Club put on a fun Halloween party where the kids got to go trick or treating to a few of the offices in the MBA building.

In the shark tunnel with my pirates

2008-11-09T18:30:00.000-08:00

Here we are in the shark tunnel on trick or treating night at the Aquarium. The sharks didn't come out in the pictures so you'll have to use your imagination:)

Aquarium trick or treating

2008-11-09T18:26:00.000-08:00

The big Adeventure Aquarium in New Jersey had a family trick or treating night before Halloween and the Hollingshaus family invited us to go with them. The boys had a blast getting a few treats and hunting for sharks along the way with Jackson and Jordan.

The cutest pirates ever

2008-11-09T18:23:00.000-08:00

Isaac and Levi both loved dressing up as pirates and sword fighting with their dollar store foam swords. Here they are before I took them out to do trick or treating at the aquarium.

La fiesta de Levi

2008-11-09T18:20:00.000-08:00

Thanks Grandma!

2008-11-09T18:18:00.000-08:00

James' mom sent Levi a bath toy with little cars and a road for the bathtub and Levi and Isaac had fun initiating on the morning of Levi's birthday.

Happy Birthday to Levi

2008-11-09T18:16:00.000-08:00

It was Levi's birthday, but Isaac kind of took control of Levi's cupcake ceremony and Levi was more interested in playing with his new cars.

Pirate Pizza

2008-11-09T18:13:00.000-08:00

Oct. 20-Oct. 26, 2008

I took Isaac to the dentist on Monday morning and they sent me back to the waiting room after they called him in. I didn’t expect him to last, but apparently he cooperated for the xrays and the teeth cleaning. Que milagro.
When Levi woke up on Tuesday morning, he ran up to James and said, “Papa, I found the spaceship book.”—it blows my mind that he is speaking full sentences now!! He is also the more polite kid you’ll ever meet. He’ll say “thankyou” and “you’re welcome” right on cue.
Going to the Science Museum on Tuesday mornings before preschool has become a new ritual for the boys and I. Isaac’s favorite thing is the ball toy in the kids science room and Levi loves looking at the images projected on the ceiling from the giant telescope in the space room.
Wednesday was Levi’s birthday!!!!! I really like that his birthday is close to Halloween because that way we can make it a costume party. We invited a bunch of friends to come over and had all of the kids dress up. It was very cute. Isaac and Levi were both pirates and they got such a kick out of running around the apartment and shouting “Arh matety” The kids danced to the elephant song, walk song, freeze song and we did some parachute games with them. That parachute I have for Spanish class comes in very handy for parties. Then I just cooked some frozen pizzas from Target and we all sang happy birthday and the kids devoured the brownie cupcakes. Levi was a very happy camper—especially because Jackson and Jordan gave him Lightning McQueen and Mater, his two favorite cars characters. Maria Paz gave him a Cars lunch box and Levi insisted on sleeping with the lunchbox with the two cars inside.
Thursday I felt like I was in slow motion all morning still recovering from Wednesday. The power went out in the afternoon so that made trying to prepare something for lunch pretty interesting. It made me realize that I need to be prepared with something more than granola bars and bread.
So I bit the bullet with Levi and told him that since he’s two years old, his bottle days are over. I put all of his bottle in a bag and hid them—for him and so that I won’t be tempted to give in and let him have one. He’s put up quite the fight, but I think he’s realizing that we’re serious. He still doesn’t want to drink his milk from a sippy cup but at least he consented to drinking it from a cup with a straw—he calls this “bubble milk.” His appetite for actual food has also been better too. His favorite things right now are green peppers, peanuts, popcorn, pasta, carrots, string cheese and frozen yogurt popsicles.
Isaac finally broke down and ate an apple—I’ve been telling him for about a week that he can’t have an after school treat until he eats some apple, and he’s just forgone the treat because he didn’t want to eat the apple. But finally this week he decided that apples are actually edible and he ate some. Hopefully he’ll keep this up since strawberry is the only other fresh fruit he eats (he loves dried fruit like raisins & craisins).
Spanish class on Thursday was awesome because I read the “Go Away Big Green Monster” book in English and Spanish. The kids loved it—especially because Isaac pretended to be a monster with his fake vampire teeth.
Thursday night Carrie invited us to go to the Aquarium to for a kids trick or treat activity. The boys loved trick or treating with the sharks, but Isaac did lose his pirate hat in all of the craziness.
Friday we went to the new Please Touch Museum (The Philly Children’s Museum) at Memorial Hall. The building that it’s in now if amazing. It feels so spacious and there are a lot more exhibits and stations to entertain the kids. Isaac’s favorite thing was the bull dozers that pick up plastic balls and Levi’s favorite thing was going shopping in the pretend supermarket. There’s also a carousel in the building that museum members can ride for free and the boys had huge smiles on their faces riding the horsies around the circle. Levi did have one major meltdown during the morning because the museum has several displays of toys behind glass (bad idea) for decoration and one of the displays is of all of the “Cars” vehicles and Levi just could not understand why he wasn’t able to play with them.
On Sunday Laura Nash took some family pics for us over at Logan Square by the fountain and we were treated to some great fall weather. The leaves changing on the trees right now are gorgeous too.
I was so tired Sunday night that I zonked out on the sofa after sitting down for a minute after putting the boys to bed—this kid in my tummy definitely makes staying on my feet more tiring than I’m used to.

Hanging out with Ben Franklin

2008-11-09T18:10:00.000-08:00

The Wharton Kids Club met on campus to take some group shots with the kids by the Ben Franklin statue. Levi liked sitting on his lap and Isaac liked crawling up on his shoulders.

Here's the rambling weekly scoop. . .

Oct.13-Oct.19, 2008
The weather was amazing today (Monday) and the fall leaves over at Taney Park were absolutely gorgeous. I haven’t been around such great fall leaves since we lived in Michigan. The boys wore themselves out at the park and I saw Isaac interacting nicely with some little girls pretending to play “restaurant” through a little pretend window. Levi kept running off with some little girls pink mini stroller and cruising all over the park. My new pet peeve is parents who bring their kids toys to the park—it drives me crazy. Having other people’s toys laying around is too tempting and it almost always ends up in a sharing crisis.
We went over to Matthias and Pepitas’ apartment in the late afternoon and the Levi couldn’t get enough of all of Matthias’ Lightning McQueen toys. We took a short swim and they all had fun pretending to be “tiburones” I love hearing Isaac speak Spanish with Matthias.
The threat of taking one of the rocks out of the jar for breaking one of the family rules has been working pretty well for Isaac. He doesn’t like losing his rocks.
We kind of got a slow start this morning (Tuesday) and I let the boys take a long morning bath for fun. Well it was all fun and games until I was getting something from my room and I heard pounding on my door. I opened it to see two construction workers asking me if my toilet was overflowing. I was very confused and I said that I didn’t think so. They said that something was wrong because water was pouring down from our apartment into the auditorium under construction below us. I walked over to the boys bathroom with them and lo and behold, there were my little angels Isaac and Levi DUMPING water out of the tub onto the floor and completely flooding everything. The construction workers got a good laugh out of it and I was mortified. I had to get every towel in the house to sop the darn mess up.
My Spanish/ASL class went really well for Tuesday. The kids loved the chocolate and diez dedito songs. We played review games with the food signs with the parachute and by doing a hot potato (my version was bolsa caliente with a bag) game that I made up.
The weather was absolutely gorgeous on Wednesday so I took the boys to the zoo. We really had a good time. We were there right when the zoo opened so we got to be the first ones to ride on the zoo balloon. The boys got to chat with “captain” Corey and it was pretty cool—I love the view that you get from way up there. When the boys were playing in the treehouse later on someone told me that they thought they heard someone crying and when I went inside the treehouse area I found Levi covered with blood on the steps. Luckily it was just a bloody nose and once I wiped the blood away he was fine—it was pretty scary to see him with all of that blood though. I’m so glad that I didn’t have to take him to the emergency room.
Isaac’s new word lately is “nevermind”—I’m not sure where he picked it up, maybe from me right? But it drives me crazy!
Levi is a complete and total ball of energy. He is in his full energizer bunny glory right now. At night he loves to be chased around the aparment, dance to music, jump on the bed and be rough housed by James. Getting him to sit still long enough to eat lately is tricky because he’d much rather be running than eating. His new favorite food is green peppers which is great—I really hope he never loses the taste for them. Isaac in the other hand is still a vegetable disaster and I have to blend veggies into his refried beans and spaghetti sauce to make sure that he gets those extra vitamins.
I got a note from Isaac’s preschool teacher saying that I need to help him learn to use a glue stick properly and hold a pencil the right way. I’ve tried to teach him how to hold a pencil but I haven’t had much luck.
The Spanish class for the older kids on Thursday went really well. I focused on colors and we used the color rope that Aunt Jackie made for me. The kids pretended they were blowing up a balloon and then we let go of the rope when the balloon “popped.” They got a big kick out of it. Isaac participated really well in the class today too—even though he kept interrupting me and asking if he could show everyone the plastic vampire teeth that he brought home from preschool.
Levi refused to take a nap on Thursday—I’m not used to this!!! He used to be the most regular napper in the world. I still put him in his bed for a while but he would not settle down. Needless to say he was a total basket case by the time seven o’clock in the evening rolled around.
I left Levi with MariaPaz Friday morning and took Isaac to the doctor’s office with me. Isaac is actually easy to have at the doctor’s office now—things are very different from when I used to dread taking him to appointments when I was prego with Levi. Now instead of running around and getting into everything he’ll actually sit with me and read stories, and make up silly stories with me like his favorite “mouse and the strawberry story.”
In the doctor’s office a nurse came into to check the baby’s heartbeart first and Isaac looked at her and said, “I don’t want that doctor mom, I want the take off your pants doctor!” He was referring to Dr.Prilou, but since he couldn’t remember her name, he just identified her by what she had had me do for the last visit—take of my pants in order to do a pap smear. The nurse was a bit confused and I was amused.
On Friday night after bathtime Isaac grabbed Levi’s hands and said “let’s do ring around the rosie!” They both did the whole ring around the rosie routine on the bed a few times and it was utterly adorable to hear them sing the song and do the dance together.
Levi is talking so much lately!! He’ll say, “Hey Isaac, wook (look) at dis (this)” and “not the big one, the little one!” (when referring to his desire for a smaller size of bottle). He can also say “Hi, I’m Levi!” He is at such an adorable stage.
While watching a Max and Ruby dvd on the computer that we got at the library—Isaac looked at Levi and said, “We get to watch Max and Ruby! I love you Levi” and Levi said, “I love you too Isaac!”

Isaac conquers the honey comb

2008-11-09T18:05:00.000-08:00

Isaac had a blast climbing around on this giant honey comb and pretending to buzz like a bee.

Zoo Treehouse Mischief

2008-10-12T21:44:00.000-07:00

Hot Airballoon View at the Zoo

2008-10-12T21:42:00.000-07:00

Freddie Hills Farm

2008-10-12T21:40:00.000-07:00

Oct. 5- Oct. 12, 2008
Monday morning we had to make a shopping run because we were totally out of all of the basics. Shopping with boys totally wears me out. We usually go to Aldis and Superfresh and the boys love the shopping carts at Superfresh with the two little steering wheels. Shopping at Aldi’s totally brings me back to the time we spent living in Saginaw, Michigan. Aldi’s was practically behind our apartment and we would go there all the time. It was a great spot for camping food supplies (like those yummy sticky buns) that we couldn’t live without when we went our our spontaneous camping trips with Jake, Matty, Cesar, and Mikeli. Good times.
Tuesday night we went over to the Cruz family’s apartment building to go swimming (they have an indoor pool on the top floor) because we’d been promising the boys a swimming adventure for a while. When we were about to get in the elevator to go up to the pool, we’d already changed Isaac into his swimming suit and he wanted to put his shirt back on. I said, “no necesitas tu camisa” and he said, “pero mama, si no tengo la camisa las personas van a decir ay mamacita en el acensor”—I have no idea where he got the “ay mamacita” phrase but James and I got a really good laugh out of that. The water wasn’t the warmest but what really made things chilly were the big fans overhead that they had going full blast. It seems like they would turn those off in colder weather. Anyhow—we didn’t last too long in the pool because Levi’s teeth started chattering.
We went out to get our car Wednesday morning and it was gone. Yep. First we thought that it had been stolen, but then we realized that we had tragically misread the parking sign. We thought that it said the tow zone began at 8 am like most of the other streets in our area, but it said 7 am. It was a pretty costly mistake.
My ASL/Spanish classes went really well this week but I’m realizing that I need to cut down on the about of vocab I try to cram into each lesson. I went a little out of control with the food lesson because I wanted to incorporate the Melissa and Doug food cutting toys into the practice session of the lesson and I had to teach quite a few words to make that happen.
Levi now says “my turn” when he doesn’t want to hold your hand in the street when he’s walking. It drives me crazy because I have to hold his hand in the street.
Thursday the boys were treated to another pumpkin farm visit—this one was called Freddie Hills Farm and we went there for a field trip for Isaac’s preschool. The boys loved going on another hayride and hunting for pumpkins. The corn maze there was better than Snipes (we really got lost this time), but the playground at Snipes was a million times better. Freddie Hills had one big slide but they only let the kids go down in once and that was a bummer.
For the Spanish class today I used the eensy weensy spider book that I found at the thrift store and it worked perfectly. The kids also love the “caminar, caminar, y parar” song and I am SO grateful that my friend Sandra in Houston introduced me to that song on one of her CDs. We also practiced saying “cuantos años tienes” and most of the older kids can say their numbers now.
Friday morning we went shopping in quest of a pirate costume for Isaac and we couldn’t find anything good at Target or Walmart. We ended with a visit to the Goodwill thriftstore and at first I couldn’t find anything there, but at the end when I scoured all of the costumes I found EXACTLY what we were looking for! It was a perfect match to the pirate costume that someone had already given us for Levi.. Isaac was elated and I was happy too that I didn’t have to try to create a pirate costume from scratch. Plus, the price was right.
We started up our babysitting co-op again last night (after a week break) and James and I went out to eat at the Indian restaurant where we’d gone for our anniversary date. The food there is so amazing. I can’t get enough of the nan and tiki masala.
Levi is all about pleasing his big brother this week. When Isaac is hunting for his Buzz lightyear toy or trying to find his T-Rex and Levi finds it first, he’ll run over to Isaac and say “Here you go Isaac!” Not to say that Levi’s always good about sharing with Isaac, but for the most part he’s very accommodating and a lot more tranquilo than Isaac.
James took the boys to the zoo on Saturday and he discovered that both boys have developed even more advanced monkey climbing skills since the last time he took them. There’s an indoor playground at the treehouse building and both boys scamper up a fake dinosaur and bee honeycombs. I think James understand more now why its such a big accomplishment just to have the boys alive and well at the end of the day.
So I modified the Accountable Kids program this week with the boys and instead of giving tickets for chores, I’ve switched it to putting rocks in a jar. They like rocks a lot better and when the rocks reach the star sticker they get a prize. So far Isaac has been very motivated by it. Levi doesn’t totally get it, but he does love putting rocks in the jar. We’ve added music time and story time to our morning routine and the boys really enjoy it. Levi discovered a tiger hat from an old Halloween costume of Isaac’s and he gets a kick out of running around wearing it for the “elephant/tiger” song. In the afternoon I added an “art time” and “helping hands” time and that has also made things go more smoothly because it’s a set thing that we do now. The boys paint with watercolors and then “help” me do a chore like picking up rice krispies that are plastered to the floor. . .

Bruse Springsteen concert outside our window. . .

2008-10-12T21:39:00.001-07:00

Las Paletas!

2008-10-12T21:39:00.000-07:00

Hanging out on Friday morning with our Chilean amigos.

La Granja

2008-10-12T21:36:00.000-07:00

Where is my Hairbrush?

2008-10-12T21:35:00.000-07:00

Sept.29-Oct.4, 2008
We had a book club meeting over at our apartment on Monday and the book we discussed was 3 Cups of Tea—it really is an amazing story. I would highly recommend it to anyone. It tell the story of a mountain climber who becomes transformed into a philanthropist dedicated to building schools in rural Pakistan. His story is incredible.
On Tuesday I taught my first Spanish/ASL class to a group of Wharton moms and it was a lot of fun, except for the fact that Isaac had a meltdown right in the middle of everything and wanted to sing “Silly Songs With Larry” and demonstrate the “Where is my Hairbrush” song for everyone. I let him put on a show singing the song after class and he was pretty pumped to have such a big audience.
The boys had a blast at the Smith playhouse on Wednesday morning and they totally wore themselves out climbing on the giant spider web equipment and hunting for fall leaves.
The Wednesday Spanish/ASL class went a lot more smoothly because Isaac was over and Jackson’s house and Levi was asleep.
Carrie and I have started taking turns picking up and dropping off Isaac and Jackson at preschool. I take the boys and she picks them up. It works SO MUCH better. I really like going home after I drop off Isaac instead of hanging around in Roxborough for two hours. Levi and I still go to the library there for a few minutes, but then we can head home and he can take his nap on time.
The Thursday Spanish class went really well, but Isaac did flip out when we didn’t do the “freeze” song right after the “walk” song. We did the “caminar, caminar y parar” song and the kids loved it.
Friday I took the boys to a place called Snipes Farm for a kids club activity and they had a blast. We went on a hay ride, played in a corn labyrinth, saw chickens, horses, pigs, and turkeys, and hung out at a fun playground at the end of the tour. The boys also got to pick out a pumpkin to take home. They really soaked up all of the fun—it made me wish we lived on a farm! Kids just need to be outdoors and explore.
On Saturday James played rugby most of the day and we were kind of stuck in center city because of a Bruce Springsteen concert going on. In the afternoon we had a good distraction because we were invited to a b-day party for Colin—the Nash’s little boy who turned one. I think Isaac horked four cupcakes when I wasn’t looking. Levi had a couple of cupcakes too, but he actually balanced it out with good stuff from the veggie tray like tomatoes, broccoli, celery, and carrots.
General conference weekend—ah yes. It’s kind of nice to have a church vacation twice a year and listen to talks over the internet. Since the conference didn’t start out here until noon, James took the boys to the park in the morning and I got some much needed time to myself.

Snipes Pumpkin Farm

2008-10-12T21:33:00.000-07:00

Dancing in the rain

2008-09-30T21:25:00.000-07:00

Sticker Mischief

2008-09-30T20:46:00.000-07:00

James was taking care of the boys on Saturday night and he took the boys over to Whole Foods. The lady at the checkout gave Isaac some stickers and when Levi fell asleep on the way home, Isaac covered his face with stickers. Needless to say, he was not a happy camper about having them removed when he woke up.

Another Boy!

2008-09-30T20:43:00.000-07:00

Sept. 22-28, 2008
Isaac and I have a new game when we’re walking through town. I say “yo veo un. . .” and then I say something that I see using Spanish vocab like “un carro rojo” or “una puerta verde” Isaac really gets into it and if he doesn’t know the word in Spanish he’ll ask me so it’s a good way to learn new words.
I finally got Levi to say “leche por favor”—he definitely prefers to say milk, but he’ll humor me.
I met a cool girl named Marina through the Wharton Kids Club. She and her husband are Russian, but they lived for a few years in Shanghai, China and their little five year old girl speaks Russian, Mandarin Chinese, and English. And I thought managing two languages was tricky!
I successfully cut both of the boys hair by myself this week. I’m not saying that its perfect, but at least their bangs aren’t in their eyes and there are no spots that look overly crooked. Levi cooperated pretty well as long as he was distracted and Isaac resisted for a while and then finally gave in and let me do some snipping. I wish there were a kids haircut place close by, but since there isn’t its forcing me to learn a new skill.
I found out on Tuesday that we’re having another boy! Ay caramba. We’re excited but I have to admit that Isaac did have me convinced that it was going to be a girl. Maybe I’m just meant to have boys. My mom says that we’ll be able to have a sports team soon. Isaac was pretty dissappointed because he was positive that he was going to have a baby sister. When I told him about the ultrasound, he said, "no mom--the doctor is wrong!" He was in denial at first, but he's starting to warm up to the idea. Now he wants to name the baby Max after the bunny rabbit from the show "Max and Ruby"
Isaac talks like Bob the Tomato and Tolola lately. He does the Tolola British accent really well and his favorite quote is, “after a bedtime treat, its time to brush our teeth.” His Bob phrases lately are, “you might be wondering why. . .” and “I suppose. . .”
Levi made is first foray into pretending Isaac style on Thursday. He came into the kitchen and announce, I’m Dora you’re Boots.
Our Chilean friends—Maria Paz and her two kids, Matias and Pepita, came over for a playdate on Friday morning. Since I’ve left Isaac with Maria before Isaac was worried I would leave him. In his haste to tell me not to leave him, he forgot the word for leave in Spanish and said, Mama, no me “leave-es” It was hilarious to hear him conjugate an English verb in Spanish.
Isaac said, “mom, do Bob the tomato and Larry the cucumber go pepee in the toilet?” I said, “ofcourse they do and he said, “but mom, they don’t have any holes!” Good observation.
On Saturday Red Bull sponsored a really cool motorcycle show a couple of blocks from our apartment and it was pretty amazing. The stunt riders were doing flips and all kinds of cool bike tricks. After watching for a few minutes Isaac said, “I didn’t know motorcycle could fly mom!”
Levi can use irregular verbs in the past tense—“ I caught a fish mom” and “I found it”
Levi is very excited about space ships these days and he’ll point to church steeples when we drive by and yell “rocketship”
Isaac and Levi have a new brotherly interaction. Levi will look at Isaac and say, “you’re a mermaid!” and then Isaac will respond, “you’re a monster!” and they’ll repeat this going back and forth—sometimes getting confused and switching and its pretty darn hilarious.
Sunday afternoon we went out when the rain slowed to a drizzle and Isaac and Levi had a blast jumping in the puddles in their rain boots. They both got completely soaked though and we had to head home for bathtime.

How many boys can you fit in a train car?

2008-09-30T20:36:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday we went to the zoo with some friends from church and all of the boys wanted to ride on the zoo train--we had seven boys on the train and they had a blast.

Dinosaur boys

2008-09-30T20:33:00.000-07:00

Sept. 15-Sept.20, 2008

We had a good park day on Monday. I try to remind myself that the good weather here won’t last—we definitely got spoiled in San Diego and Houston with mild winters. They say that the winter here last year wasn’t too bad but maybe that means that this year will be a doozey.
When we were walking home from the park Isaac saw a guy dressed like a baker sitting outside a culinary arts school. He said, “mom, do you see what I see?” and got this big excited grin. He squealed, “it’s a baker mom! A real baker!” Luckily the guy smiled and said hi. Isaac felt like he was meeting a neighborhood celebrity.
Isaac seems to be doing better with behaving himself at school. His teacher said that he has been more mellow the past two days. Hopefully he can keep it up. I’ve enjoyed having some one-on-one time with Levi. Usually Carrie and I go to the park so he and Jordan can run around together and then I go to the library with Levi. There’s actually a good dvd selection at the Roxborough library and Levi loves obsessing over all of the dvd covers—especially anything with Veggie Tales on it. Today his big trophy was the Larry Boy movie.
Kim McKay got us into the big Adventure Aquarium in New Jersey on Wednesday. The boys loved getting to see sharks and “Nemo fish” as Levi calls them. Levi and Kim’s little boy Elliot wanted to run through the whole place and they wore themselves out pretty well—Levi zonked out on the way home.
I read a book called “The Last Lecture” for a Wharton book club tonight. The book is pretty amazing—I still need to watch the video of the last lecture but the book is a pretty detailed expansion of it. Its one of those books that can’t help but make you want to be a better person and really live in the moment—you just never know when your time on earth will be cut short.
We discovered a thrift store Thursday morning over by Aldis and the boys had fun playing with the toys while I sifted through the kids books. I found some cute Dora books and a really fun Spanish book about a jumping backpack.
James has been gone in the evenings a lot this week and the boys miss the physical rough housing with their dad. Levi especially starts “spazzing out” so I try to put on some dance music and swing them around.
Friday morning we walked by an old building that looked like a castle and when we walked by I pointed it out to Isaac. He said, “What will the king say if we go inside the castle mom?”
Isaac asked me at the park on Saturday how to say “show me” in Spanish and I told him “muestrame” and then he said, “quiero mostrarte algo mama”—he must have recognized the verb because I was amazed at how fast he was able to put it back into its infinitive form.
We hung out with our Chilean friends on Sunday and that’s always such a great opportunity for the boys to get great Spanish exposure by someone other than James and I. Isaac was speaking a lot of Spanish with Matias and it was so fun to hear him talk. Levi was catching on to a lot of new words to and he can say “gracias” and “por favor” pretty well.

Puzzling activities

2008-09-20T19:17:00.000-07:00

Science Museum fun

2008-09-20T19:16:00.000-07:00

Wockets in my pockets

2008-09-20T19:15:00.000-07:00

Sept.9-Sept.14, 2008
I forgot to write that when we were at the park last week a little kid asked Isaac’s name and he paused for a second and said, “Benjamin Franklin!”
Monday was a good park day. The boys pretended to be pirates and spaceship explorers with the kids from church playgroup and then we stopped at trader joes on the way home and go some fresh pizza dough. I really like that aspect of city life—being able to walk to a park and then shop at a store on your way home. You get exercise and you don’t really need a gym work out because you’re doing so much walking.
Isaac’s first day of preschool was on Tuesday and he did alright but I got an email from his teacher later that day about the need to work with him on following directions, raising his hand when he wants to speak, and sitting still and staying focused when she’s talking. I definitely have my work cut out for me. I really hope that Isaac can improve with these things, I wish I could just wave a magic wand and make it all happen.
We also went to a Spanish playgroup on Tuesday morning and it was funny because the person hosting the playgroup had a small apartment and a new baby and no toys so my boys went a little bonkers looking for something to play with. Isaac did use his Spanish though so at least that was good.
Wednesday was a zoo day and the weather was great so the boys ran around a lot and wore themselves and me out completely. My favorite part about the zoo here is a giant treehouse that they have for members only and its this big indoor/enclosed play area where the kids can run wild and climb all over everything.
Isaac did better in school on Thursday so at least I’m hopeful he won’t be kicked out at least for another week. While Isaac is at school Levi keeps asking “where’s Isaac?” and when Isaac goes into school he says, “I want Levi to be in my class.” Ah brotherly love—I need to remind them of that when they’re clocking each other over the head with toys.
Levi is saying sentences now—“read me that book mom” and “here I am” and “there it is” and “give me a towel”
Isaac tucked all of his finger puppets into bed with him—he put them all in a really cute row.
Friday night there was a kids club party and there was a balloon artist there so the boys kept her busy making balloon swords and then all of the kids were running around in circles chasing each other.
This morning a lot of the streets were blocked off for a funeral procession for a police officer. I just walked over to the Franklin Science museum with the boys and I have to say it was so nice just to have a fun place to take them within walking distance—across the street! Isaac even got to dress up in a real astronaut suit that one of the staff was using for a little demonstration.
The boys got invited to a b-day party on Saturday with a construction worker theme. They were pretty pumped to wear the pretend hard hats and play with their new plastic dump trucks. Levi also found a large rock to jump off of several times and a good muddy spot to practically bathe in. Isaac was beside himself with glee when we got to eat the chocolate “dirt” frosted cupcakes.
Hurrican Ike hit Houston today. I’m glad we’re not in Houston anymore, but we do still own a house there! We talked to our old neighbors (our tenants are on vacation) and they said that our house is okay but the family next to us got a tree through their back window.
We found the missing Wocket in my Pocket book this week and the boys have absolutely loved reading it again. Isaac has invented some know “Wocketisms” like being a “zaundry in the laundry” or a “zed” in the bed.
Babysitting trade offs. . . we started off a Saturday night kid swap operation with some friends from church. We took all of the kids this Saturday (Jackson, Jordan, Sage, Marley, and Elliot) and then for the next 3 Saturdays we get to drop our kids off at our friend’s houses and go out on a date! I’m pretty pumped. The babysitting did get a little intense when Sage and Elliot both had meltdowns at the same time. I kept the older kids busy going on treasure hunts with silly made up treasure maps that I made. I put teddy grahams in a little brown chest that the kids wanted me to hide—they got a real kick out of pretending to be “pirates.”
The prayer strike has finally ended for Isaac. He had been refusing to pray for a while and always insisting that we do it, but this week he decided that he would pray and he’s prayers have been very. . . interesting. He likes to thank Heavenly Father in advance for things he wants to happen—for example, “thank you for riding in a fire truck and for lots of candy.”
Levi has started to use more short sentences this week. He’ll say “Where’d Isaac go?” and “push the button,” “I have poops,” and “Whatcha doin?”

Franklin Square

2008-09-20T19:11:00.000-07:00

There is a huge sand castle next to the Franklin Square park. The boys were quite tempted to jump on it and climb all over it.

Driving the firetruck

2008-09-20T19:08:00.000-07:00

Sept.1-Sept.8, 2008
We had an awesome labor day picnic with our ward over at Fairmont park. The boys got to pretend to drive a firetruck (someone had connections) and we got some great pics. Lots of good food and the kids were very entertained by running around and playing with all of the other kids. The best part was that James and I got to play a game of ultimate frisbee. I threw a touch down pass underneath someone blocking me to James and that was my superstar moment.
Levi now says “I’m okay” after he falls down and if he senses your hurt he’ll give you a kiss and say, “all better” He can say “azul” and “verde” in Spanish and also “basura”
When I talk in Spanish to Isaac and he wants to switch back to English he’ll say, “quiero hablar otra idioma” he cracks me up.
We asked Isaac yesterday if he wanted to find out if the baby was a boy or a girl and he said, “it’s a girl momma.” He seems so sure of himself that it’s a little uncanny. I can’t remember if I wrote this before or not but back in March he would wake up every morning for a while and say, “where’s my baby sister?” and “is there a baby in your tummy mom?” I got pregnant in April so he was pretty close.
Levi found the “Cars”movie book at the library and he is obsessed about “Lightning Mcqueen” “Sally” and all of the other race cars. He wanted me to read the story over and over and over. . .
I discovered on Wednesday that the boys had filled the bottom of the jogger stroller with dvds from our visit to the library on Tuesday—I had no idea they were there and I didn’t check them out. Luckily I was able to return them to the library and casually remove them from my stroller and put them back in the right section. The security guard always just waves me through when there’s a beep because I think the security thing must malfunction all of the time. I had a long talk with Isaac about not taking home things we don’t check out from the library or things we don’t buy at the store.
Levi loves saying “I’m okay” and now he can say “esta bien” in Spanish. Isaac totally surprised me when he remembered the word for sticker in Spanish—calcumania.
On Wednesday we went to the Natural History Museum with Carrie and her two boys—Jackson and Jordan. It was nice because they got us in on their pass. The boys loved the dino exhibits and sticking their heads in recreations of dino skulls and “roaring” like a dinosaur.
Thursday Kay had a pre-K party at her place for all of the 4 year olds going to pre-K. She made a cake shaped like a pencil with pink frosting for the eraser—Isaac and Levi loved the pink frosting part. We also went over to the open house for Isaac’s preschool and his teacher is really cool. She does the preschool in her basement which is decorated with lots of bright colors, letters, numbers, shapes, etc. His class will have ten other kids so it will be a nice small size. He’s most excited about getting to play with the toys.
When Isaac wakes up in the morning now he comes running into our room and says, “Dragon, ROAR!” and tackles us in bed. Such a lovely way to wake up.
Friday night we had dinner with some friends from India and they told us to be there at 7 o’clock so we felt bad when we arrived a little late and imagined that they might have started eating already. We were very surprised to still be hanging out talking at 9:30 and there was no sign of dinner. Finally a little after 10:00 they set the table and we didn’t get home until 11:00—our kids were total disasters by the end. Talk about a cultural clash of dinner times. The food was amazing—but having to wait until 10:00 to eat with our kids bouncing off the walls was not something I want to do again soon.
Saturday night Levi say me yawn and said “Are you tired?” Very cute. He’s starting to say more phrases now.
James took Isaac to see something called the Red Bull Derby where people race in homemade cars without motors down a big hill. It started pouring down rain but there were still a ton of people there. Isaac got the biggest thrill out of getting to ride the train home.
So now I’m trying to set up a Spanish/ASL class through the Wharton Kids Club since the library here gave me the run around about starting a Spanish storytime. I just sent in a proposal tonight so hopefully we can make things happen by October.
Levi can sit and play the xylophone and sing his abc’s—its absolutely adorable.
I finally had a doctor’s appointment this week and Isaac came with me. He really wanted to hear the baby’s heart beat and when I had to go to the lab for bloodwork he said, “be brave momma, I’ll protect you”—sometimes he just melts my heart. I’ll get an ultrasound on the 23rd of September—that’s the soonest they could schedule me.
We spent the second half of stake conference hunting for Heffalumps outside—we even found some “Heffalump berries” that turned our fingers florescent pink.

Adios Please Touch Museum

2008-09-20T19:05:00.000-07:00

:Last day at Children's Muesum

2008-09-20T19:04:00.000-07:00

We went to the Please Touch Muesum one last time before they close at their current location and move over to a new spot by the zoo. I will REALLY miss having that place right behind my apartment!

Flower Boys

2008-09-20T19:01:00.000-07:00

This is a cool garden we found at a park close to Isaac's preschool.

Dressed up in red and ready to rumble

2008-09-20T18:58:00.001-07:00

Face Painting Fun

2008-09-20T18:58:00.000-07:00

August 25-August 31, 2008
We went for a quick morning run to the Please Touch Museum and then we headed over to Carrie’s for playgroup. After James finished classes we met him on campus for a big barbeque for all of the first year students. There was a balloon guy and a lady doing face painting. Isaac had a big red butterfly painted on his face and I couldn’t believe that he was patient enough to let the painting happen. The balloon guy made pirate swords for all of the kids and they had a blast having sword fights. Levi kept popping his sword and asking for more—luckily the balloon guy was really cool. There was also a karaoke machine there and James and I sang Love Shack with Lori Mortenson—it was pretty amazing. At bedtime Isaac said to me, “momma, I like your eyes because they’re sparkly”—very sweet.
More Please Touch Muesum Tuesday morning plus a trip to the library. I had asked the head librarian about doing a Spanish storytime a couple weeks ago and when I tried to find her today they told me she was on vacation. Oh well, I’d really like to be able to start a Spanish storytime here like I did in San Diego. We found some great Curious George and Anthony Browne books at the library. Right now Isaac is obsessed with the story about Curious George calling the fire fighters and going to jail. I put all of the Accountable Kids cards out on a posterboard for Isaac to visualize the routines and it works much better than the peg board. Plus he can put magnets on the cards he’s finished and he likes that. Levi took a power four hour nap today. I hope he keeps up this napping thing for a while.
We discovered the giant treehouse at the zoo for members only and I was pretty impressed. The boys loved playing in there and it was nice to sit and let them run around in a contained space. At the end of the day today I was talking to the kids in Spanish and I asked Isaac, “Cual fue tu parte favorito del dia?” He said, “ir en la casa del arbol” and then just for kicks I asked Levi the same question in Spanish and he said, “el parque!”—we had just gotten back from an afternoon park trip. That kid amazes me with how much he is able to understand and say in both languages.
Isaac can now make his bed (mas o menos) and he is pretty proud of himself. The accountable kids program his worked a lot better with the magnetic board set up where he can see all of the pictures at once. It’s still hard to get him to stay in quiet time for a decent amount of time, but at least he’s doing it. We checked out a Charlie and Lola dvd from the library and Isaac watched it this afternoon on the computer with the “ticket” he earned from doing his chores. They are really cute stories and I love the British accents. I with there was a Spanish track on the dvd.
Wednesday we hit the Please Touch Museum again since this is the last week that they’re open a block away from our apartment. I’m so bummed that they’re moving! I got interviewed by a public radio about the museum changing locations so we’ll see if I make it on the piece they’ll air next Monday.
Levi has now started the Isaac habit of freaking out if we have to park in the middle of a song that’s playing in the car. He usually insists on sitting and listening to the entire song in his car seat. Isaac went through that exact same phase when he was Levi’s age.
We got to go up in the hot air balloon again at the zoo on Friday. Very cool, but I am afraid of heights so I’m very grateful for the netting around the lookout area. We came with Carrie and her two boys and there wasn’t room for my jogger in her car but I definitely should have brought the umbrella stroller because Levi turned into mr. sack of potatoes at the end of the morning and just wanted to be carried.
Isaac—pee pee and resorting to grumpy old troll methods. . .Sometimes he still refuses to use the potty when I can tell that he obviously has to go so I tell him that I’m the grumpy old troll and that he can’t leave the bathroom until he solves the riddle by going pee pee. I’ve only had to do it once and it worked—its amazing the crazy things you come up with as a mom.
James took the boys out to the Please Touch this morning and I finally went and got myself a library card and some books on cd.
After reading the Juan and Tolola books Isaac is now harder to get to bed because he is convinced that there are crocodiles and alligators and hippos in his room.
Levi loves finding pics of any veggie tales characters and running up to us and saying “Who’s dat?!” For a treat we let the boys watch new “Lord of the Beans” Veggie Tales movie that we found on sale at Aldis. They loved it and we enjoyed a nice romantic Saturday dinner while they were distracted.
So I discovered that I can blend pears into pancake batter in the vitamix and the boys can’t taste the difference. Heck—I can’t taste the difference. I love the vitamix. I also made some fresh fruit popsicles for the boys this week with the vitamix. I need to start vitamixing a bunch of veggies into their spaghetti and pizza sauce too. Levi is actually really good about eating his veggies but Isaac is a total disaster so I’m always trying to sneak in veggies where I can.
I helped out in Isaac’s sunbeam class today and the lesson was on I’m thankful for food and clothing. The teacher asked, “where does milk come from?” and Isaac said, “a cow” then she said where do our clothes come from and he said “a bureau,” and then she asked where does meat come from and he said “a grill” and “where do eggs come from?” and he said, “a pan.” Priceless.

Zoo Tree House

2008-09-20T18:55:00.000-07:00

Bekka Stone come to Philly

2008-09-20T18:48:00.000-07:00

Bekka and I have been friends since our freshman year at BYU and we were roommates at the Green Leaf Hostel our senior year. As luck would have it, our paths crossed again because she came out to Philly to visit a family that we just met a church.

Getting to know Philly

2008-09-20T18:45:00.000-07:00

Aug.18-24, 2008
We started the accountable kids program with the kids and Isaac really got into it, but Levi can’t handle the temptation of the pegboard within reach and he loves to grab and scatter all of the chore cards. I think maybe I’ll just put the chore cards on a poster or something. Anyhow, the basic concepts at least have helped me be more consistent about certain things like having them brush their teeth in the morning and having them put their dirty clothes in the hamper at night.
Monday was a park day and Tuesday was another adventure at the Please Touch Museum. The museum is seriously less than a block away from us, but unfortunately the museum is moving to a new location in a couple of weeks that puts it out of comfortable walking distance for us (but it will be about a 5 minute drive so I can’t complain too much).
Potty dance break through. Isaac has been holding his pee until the absolute last minute lately and having some accidents. Finally today I had the brilliant idea of telling him that if he’s doing a silly potty dance then the pee pee must be screaming “let me out” and he has to run to the bathroom. He thought the potty dance idea was hilarious and he’s actually been cooperating every time I see him doing the potty dance.
Wednesday was our shopping day and we hit Aldis and Target.
Thursday was a magical day at the Smith Playhouse. We met Kim McKay (with her two kids) and Bekka Stone there. Its been great to see Bekka this week! That place is so amazing. We discovered that there is a basement floor that we totally missed last time. Its called “Smithville” and it has little cars and tricycles that the kids can ride around in a circle and there’s a big stop that changes colors. We played inside for a while and then went out to the slide and the boys both wanted to try going down while laying down on the gunny sack. As we were walking to the car they wanted to play in the sprinklers and I let them, but they also discovered some mud puddles and did some jumping and got totally soaked.
Friday we decided to go to the zoo and get a zoo pass. The pass was well worth it because it includes endless hot air balloon and train rides. We went up on the hot air balloon and the boys were in heaven. It made me kind of queasy but Isaac loved pointing out the river, trees, tall buildings and everything he could see below.
Isaac can now write the letter I, J, S, and A! Hooray. And Levi is getting into the ABC’s—he loves singing the ABC song. I didn’t realize that he recognized most of the letters though. While we were at the Smith Playhouse on Thursday, Bekka had him find almost all of the letters of the alphabet magnets scattered on the floor and she said that he could identify each letter on his own.
James took both of the boys to the zoo and the Please Touch Museum on Saturday morning. Isaac was very excited about riding on the duck boats that he had seen the last time. They also discovered a cool tree house for kids that I missed last time. I took advantage of the time and scanned my Guate pics to send Dr. Hawkins for the traslado book. I still can’t believe that the book is actually going to happen.
Bekka Stone came over on Saturday night and we had a good long chat about everything and reminisced about all of our college adventures together. I had forgotten that we were both in the same colloquium class with Dr. Lyon at BYU. That was the best class ever.
James and I both helped out in primary on Sunday and Isaac insisted on going to the class I was subbing for but it worked out all right because a just had two other kids (the 5 and 6 year olds). The lesson was on obeying the law so we played a lot of red light green light and Isaac loved pretending to be the police man. I can feel the baby kicking pretty distinctly this week. I’ve felt little movements for the past 3 weeks, but these ones are unmistakable. We’re excited to find out what’s inside.

Isaac and Levi in Wonderland

2008-09-16T19:59:00.000-07:00

Having a tea party at the "Please Touch Museum"

Philly "Please Touch" Muesum

2008-09-16T19:54:00.000-07:00

Aug.11-Aug. 17, 2008
We’ve been meeting other mom’s from church for a little playgroup over at Markward park on Mondays. It was fun because Trini (from Chile) also showed up with her boys Diego and Mauricio and Isaac played “restaurante” with Mauricio in Spanish.
The boys were actually fairly tranquilo through storytime on Tuesday at the library, but after the 3rd book their attention span started to wander—actually almost all of the kids attention spans started to wander and the place was descending into total chaos by the time the sweet little grandma librarian got the hint and finished things up instead of finishing the two extra books she’d brought. The Spanish kid’s book selection at the library is great, but the dvd selection is pretty sparse.
We went to the Please Touch Museum (the children’s museum of Philadelphia) on Wednesday and Isaac and Levi were in heaven. It’s the best kid’s museum I’ve ever been to. Houston and San Diego had good ones, but this one is pretty awesome. There’s a pretend shopping area, a big Alice in Wonderland fun zone, a construction area where the kids can use plastic hammers, nails and paint rollers to fix up a house, a big boat that rocks up and down, a water table with little boats, a train table, a building block area, a giant ball toy, a sports zone, a pretend house, etc. Isaac’s favorite so far is the shopping area. He loves being in charge of filling up the shopping cart. Levi’s favorite is the Alice in Wonderland zone where he likes to run around giggling as he opens the different sized doors in the looking glass hallway.
We ended up back at the Please Touch Museum on Thursday and Saturday (James was gone most of Saturday doing a Wharton service project building a Kaboom playground, so we needed a good distraction).
On Friday we went to another amazing place in Philadelphia called the Smith Play House. Its an old Victorian style home in Fairmount park that is filled with toys on the outside and surrounded by fun playground equipment in the outside. There are some fun old fashioned things like a giant wooden slide that you go down on gunny sacks. Isaac and Levi wanted to go down it at least 20 times and then finally we went in the house to play with the toys and I had to drag them away kicking and screaming when it was nap time.
Isaac is making mistakes in English that I remember studying in my language acquisition classes. Sometimes he’ll say, “what did he said?” and “where did we went?” He’ll also overgeneralize irregular verbs that he already knows like “make” and say “maked” instead of “made.” In Spanish he’ll add an extra letter to some words like, “no quiero acompartir” Hanging out with the Chileans has been good for his Spanish. We need to find some more Spanish speaking friends though.
Levi is starting to pick up some Isaac-isms like saying “not”—Isaac likes being very contrary lately and when you make requests like “smile for the picture Isaac” he’ll say “I’m NOT smiling.” It drives me crazy.
We got a cd of Veggie Tales music from the library and Levi is obsessed with it. I don’t know what it is about Veggie Tales that draws his attention so much but he goes nuts over the music, books and movies. He can even say long names like “Larry the cucumber” “Junior Asparagus” and “Madame Blueberry”

Blue table friends

2008-09-16T19:51:00.000-07:00

Isaac has befriended the son of one of our security guards. His name is Damir and he loves to paint with Isaac and do back flips in our living room.
Isaac and Levi love hanging out with Jackson and Jordan--their two new church/Wharton kids club buddies.

Helicopter Museum!

2008-09-16T19:48:00.000-07:00

Aug. 4-Aug.10, 2008
What a week! On Monday we went to Markward park again and Levi ended up playing in a pile of dirt and sticks with his buddy Charlton and Isaac wet his pants because the bathroom was locked. Its funny because the last time we were at the park Isaac just went off by himself and peed behind a tree. I couldn’t find him anywhere and when I finally saw him, he was walking towards me with his underwear around his knees and his pants down. Ay caramba. He said that some lady told him to “pull up your pants” and he was even able to imitate the great Indian accent that she must have said it in. Pretty funny.
On Monday night we also took the kids to the big fountain on Logan circle and let them “swim” in the water. The love the big turtles and frogs that spray water out of their mouths.
Tuesday was library day and that place was completely insane for storytime. It reminded me of when I did storytime in San Diego and the place would become so packed that I felt like I was yelling when I read the stories.
On Wednesday our new furniture arrived—a sofa, loveseat and recliner (brown mircofiber). The boys call them our “thinking chairs” (from Blues Clues) and they love bouncing all over them and wiping their mocos on them (luckily the mocos wipe off fairly easily).
Thursday was amazing because Jessica Larsen invited us to go to the helicopter museum outside of town and she even gave us a ride. The boys were in heaven. It was a perfect activity because for some reason Isaac has been begging us to go visit a helicopter station. There were tons of old helicopters that the kids could climb into and pretend to fly. The only tough thing was that we couldn’t actually fly up in the sky with the helicopters—both of the boys were a bit disappointed about that.
Friday we went over to campus for the first kids club get together and it was fun to meet some other moms.
One night this week when we sat down to read the Book of Mormon Isaac said, “No, I don’t want to pretend that we’re at church.”
Swimming with la familia Cruz
Levi’s favorite book is “A Wocket in my Pocket” and he can finish almost all of the phrases in the book.. His favorite song in Spanish is “Los Pollitos and he can finish the last words of most of the lines in the song.

Que hace la langosta?

2008-09-16T19:42:00.000-07:00

July 28-Aug. 3, 2008
Isaac has been begging to get roller skates for the past couple of weeks and I told him that we could look at the thrift stores. We went to Salvation Army without any luck and then today at Aldi’s (that German discount grocery store) we found a pair of roller skates in the random section in the middle of the store. It was crazy because there was just one pair of skates there and they happened to be Isaac’s size. He was overjoyed. He wanted to put them on the second we got home and he’s not exactly graceful yet, but he can actually shuffle down the hall with them and kind of sort of stop. He fell down quite a few times but I helped him back up and then he insisted on trying again by himself. I’m impressed with his determination.
After the boys wanted to watch a Little People dvd in Spanish, I spoke all in Spanish to them the rest of the evening and we had a lot of fun with it. Isaac would say “quiero hablar ingles” but then he would keep speaking Spanish and asking me how to say things in Spanish. We read one fun book from the library called “Como iremos a la playa” and he wanted to hear it 3 times. We read a Curious George Goes the Aquarium book in Spanish and Isaac asked me, “Mom, how do you say “do” in Spanish?” and ofcourse I said, “Do what?” Because the translation of “do” depends. He looked at me thoughtfully and said “its ‘hacer’ mom.” And then “que hace la langosta?” He’s my little linguist. Levi is getting the Spanish vocab down too, but his Spanish is more receptive than productive right now. You can ask him “donde esta el caballo?” and he’ll tell you, but he’ll still prefer to say horse.
On Monday night we let the boys put their swimsuits on and wade around the huge water fountain at Logan Circle. That fountain is awesome. It looks like something that should be in Europe. Isaac and Levi had a blast running up to the turtles and frogs spraying huge flumes of water from their mouths.
I met a Nicaraguan lady at the library who spoke Spanish and I was so excited to find her. There aren’t very many Latinos in Center City. She nannies for two kids that speak Spanish so I got her phone number and we’ll have to have a Spanish storytime soon.
We met the coolest Chilean family on Sunday! James met Jorge in line at the bookstore and when he found out that they had two kids the same ages as our kids, he invited them over to hang out on Saturday. Then we found out that they live in an apartment with an indoor swimming pool—and they invited us over to go swimming. Isaac and Levi were beside themselves with glee. They both love swimming and it was so fun for them to have other kids to speak Spanish with.
We found a really cool book at the library called “Como iremos a la playa” and its now Isaac’s favorite. Levi’s current favorites are the Little People school book and Everyone Poops (a classic).
On Thursday night Levi asked me for the first time to “tell the story”—just like Isaac always does. He said “Levi throws the rock in the waterfall—tell the story!” Very cute.
We went furniture shopping on Saturday and finally found a cool living room set that we both like. On the way back though, we stopped at Office Depot which happens to be right next to Toysrus. I made the mistake of going in toyland to distract the kids while James was looking for a scientific calculator. Isaac saw a Diego slide toy that he wanted and he pitched a major fit when we left the store without it. We told him that if he was good, Santa Claus would bring it too him for Christmas. So his new obsession is to gaze at a picture of the toy he wants on the computer and then ask about when Christmas is and how he can call Santa Claus on the phone to speed things up.
Painting rainbows! Isaac can now officially paint a rainbow and he’s been a rainbow painting machine all week.

Fountain fun

2008-09-15T18:25:00.000-07:00

Logan Circle--the summertime fountain

2008-09-15T18:23:00.000-07:00

2nd Week in Philly

2008-09-15T18:20:00.000-07:00

July 21-July 27, 2008
This week we made a lot of progress with our unpacking and you can now see the floor in most areas of our apartment.
On Monday we hiked over to Taney park where some moms from church get together for a playgroup. Isaac had a lot of fun playing “restaurant with Jordan and pretending to order things through the plastic window. Levi’s favorite thing now is to go on the swings and he always wants to go higher and he loves it when you do “underdog.”
We all went swimming on Tuesday at an apartment of a family who is moving next week—bummer that they’re moving, but getting access to the pool was amazing. The boys had a blast. Levi can now saw “I go swimming in the water.” He’s does really well with his pronouns.
Keeping up with the Spanish is going to be trickier in Philadelphia. There aren’t very many Latinos in our area of town. We talked to the missionaries from the Spanish branch on Sunday and they said that they would introduce us to some families that live fairly close. I just really want the kids to have some playmates that speak Spanish so that they’re more motivated to learn.
Isaac is very excited about riding his bike lately and he has ridden it over to Jackson and Jordon’s place and all the way over to Markward park. The other day though when we went for a little ride he stopped for a minute and when I asked him what the problem was he said, “I just ran out of gas mom.”
We took the boys to Ikea this week for a little shopping adventure and they both went crazy in this play area there where they have a huge pretend basket filled with plastic red and blue balls. Levi acted like he was swimming in them and Isaac just loved throwing them all over the place.
I’m trying to get back into the routine of reading more to the boys and making sure to alternate with English and Spanish. Levi’s new favorite book is “There’s a Wocket in my Pocket” and Isaac’s is “The Bearnstein Bears and Junkfood.”
Isaac is still being VERY stubborn about trying new foods. The only fruits he’ll eat are strawberries, raisins, and dried blueberries and cranberries. And vegetables—all he’ll touch is tomato sauce but I guess that doesn’t really count as a vegetable.
Levi’s vocab is exploding. His favorite English words and phrases are “milk” “read this book” “play with the toys” “food” “please” “thank you” and “monkeys jumping on the bed.” His favorite Spanish words are “agua” “vamos” “aqui esta” “gracias” “uvas”

Playing Around at the new place

2008-09-15T18:17:00.000-07:00

July 14-20, 2008
Isaac announced to everyone on the airplane that he wanted to go down the emergency slide.
We arrived in Philadelphia on Monday afternoon and we stayed at a hotel with a swimming pool so the boys were pretty excited about that.
Tuesday morning we headed over to our new place and we love it. Its actually bigger than I remember it--there's a nice long hallway for the kids to run down and ride their bikes down.
The Hollingshouse family that we met during Wharton welcome weekend has been really helpful. They lent us an airbed, pillows, blankets, and toys before our stuff arrived and then on Sunday they invited us over with another new family, the Millers, for dessert. They have two little boys--ages four and two, so its a perfect match for our boys.
We went to church here for the first time today and the ward seems like fun. It's about half inner city families and half young student families. Unfortunately there aren't many Latinos because most go to the Spanish branch. Isaac lucked out with a really good primary teacher and he was very happy after sunbeams so that's always a good sign.

swimming and cute muddy monkeys

2008-09-15T18:14:00.000-07:00

Levi and Mathew snuggling with Lara

2008-09-15T18:09:00.000-07:00

They're both getting ready to be big brothers!

B-Day in Phoenix

2008-09-15T18:07:00.000-07:00

James planned a surprise B-Day for me on the 12th and invited all of my extended family in Phoenix--it was a blast!

Los Tres Amigos

2008-09-15T18:05:00.000-07:00

Phoenix Zoo

2008-09-15T18:01:00.000-07:00

My little gardeners

2008-08-30T19:27:00.000-07:00

Last days in Eagar

2008-08-30T19:24:00.000-07:00

July 7-13, 2008
We stayed in Eagar until Thursday and James had a chance to go cattle punching with Sam on Tuesday and Wednesday. On Tuesday my mom and I joined them at the beginning with the boys and while we were waiting for Sam to hunt down some of the cows we got to ride my mom's horse, Huajolote. We let Isaac and Levi take turns riding around with each of us and then I rode the horse for a little while myself. It was a blast to get him going fast through the meadows. There's just nothing quite like galloping on a good horse through wide open territory. Yeehaw. Afterwards my mom and I took the boys to big lake and they had a rock throwing fest by the water's edge.
The boys were VERY excited about going to Phoenix again and getting a chance to see their cousins and go swimming. We spent the whole afternoon in the pool and boys were in heaven. Levi can now say "I go swimming"
Levi--"mamu"--has now progressed to "matchu"

Horsing Around

2008-08-30T19:22:00.000-07:00

Good times with Tio Fredy

2008-08-30T19:10:00.000-07:00

Fourth of July Weekend Fiesta for Jenny

2008-08-30T19:09:00.000-07:00

At the bowling alley

2008-08-28T20:02:00.000-07:00

Hiking in Greer

2008-08-28T20:01:00.000-07:00

Quest for a good family pick

2008-08-28T19:59:00.000-07:00

Belleza Natural

2008-08-28T19:58:00.000-07:00

Levi the tractor driver

2008-08-28T19:54:00.000-07:00

Potty Training break through

2008-08-28T19:53:00.000-07:00

June 30-July 5, 2008

On Monday the miracle that we've been waiting for with Isaac finally happened--he decided on his own that he wanted to go pee pee and poo poo in the potty. I was hiking with the boys along the creek by Aunt Julie's house when Isaac announced that he wanted to go pee pee in the water like Raul (the main character in a book we've been reading him about potty training). He then said that he wanted to go use the bathroom at the Phoenix zoo. I told him that that would be pretty complicated because we were far away from the zoo, so he said that he would settle for grandma's toilet. I tried not to get my hopes up, because in Houston he'd used the potty before and then went right back to his old ways, but this time he's really stuck with it. He went poo and pee in the toilet that day and he's kept it up all week. He's peed in his pants a few times by accident but at least all of the poo has made it to the toilet. Most miraculous of all--he's even using toilets in other places. He used to be terrified of toilets at church, the park, stores, etc, but now he actually wants to go try them out and he thinks that urinals are an amazing invention. To reward him we've let him go on a Dora video renting binge at the local movie store and he's also gotten some freebie chocolate out of the deal. We also went to Alco and picked out some spiderman underwear that he was pretty pumped about.
Levi is interested in watching Isaac go potty, but he still prefers peeing in the bathtub to the toilet. Oh well, at least its a start.
WATER TURN! There was a water turn this week and the boys were in heaven. Levi started out in his irrigation boots and then ended up completely buck naked and so did Isaac. We got some great camera footage of them splashing around in the water.
We went on a couple of nice hikes along the river in Greer this week. That place is gorgeous. The boys get a kick out of running on the trails but Levi always gets low on batteries at the end and we have to drag him along.
On Friday we headed up to Showlow to help my mom find a digital camera and then we went to Snowflake to celebrate Jenny's birthday. We hung out for a while at the house and then went to a tennis court park. The boys went crazy running all over the tennis court and trying to swing a couple of old rackets around. Levi loved it when James threw the tennis ball up really high.
Saturday we went bowling and Isaac and Levi were very excited by the novelty of it all. Levi kept running around trying to pick up all of the bowling balls and dive down the lanes. We got a lane with bumpers so the kids could play and Isaac actually got to the point where he could roll the ball down the lane by himself and he'd jump for joy when he knocked down the pins.
Levi is still obessed with Dave and the Giant Pickle and after his naps he wakes up wanting to see the "pickle."

Snuggles and canoe rides

2008-08-25T19:37:00.000-07:00

River Exploration

2008-08-25T19:36:00.000-07:00

Double Cousins

2008-08-25T19:35:00.000-07:00

Fun at Grandma's house

2008-08-25T19:33:00.000-07:00

Dos hermanos columpiando

2008-08-25T19:29:00.000-07:00

The Big Hair Cut. . .

2008-08-25T19:27:00.000-07:00

June 23-29, 2008
We headed up to Eagar on Tuesday morning after staying one extra day in Snowflake.
For our last day in Snowflake we had an adventure at the dollar store and found some great pirate swords that the kids love pretend sword fighting with. They like making pirate sounds like "ar matey" and "yo ho ho."
We met a lady at the dino park who lost her husband (he was shot randomly). Her name was Paula Gutierrez--very sad story.
My mom's house looks gorgeous in the summer--flowers blooming and green everywhere. This has been an unusually good year for rain.
The big hair cut happened this week—we decided that it was finally time to chop off Levi’s golden locks because he was being mistaken all the time for a girl. My mom cut his hair and he actually cooperated and she did an amazing job. He looks so grown up now with shorter hair!
Isaac and Levi love throwing rocks in the pond and Isaac loves riding on my mom's horse with me and saying yippy kay-yai
We had fun at the merry go round park and the exercise machine
Levi is saying lots of new words--snuggle, sleep, hugs
Isaac needs more practice being polite--he doesn't do so well with strangers.

Eagar Land

2008-08-25T19:21:00.000-07:00

Roser Law Office

2008-08-25T19:16:00.000-07:00

Dino Park in Snowflake

2008-08-25T19:14:00.000-07:00

Life after Mexico

2008-08-25T19:09:00.000-07:00

June 16-22, 2008
Getting back from Mexico--we'd forgotten all of our passports but James' and luckily they didn't give us too much trouble at the border. When we got back the battery on Matt's garage opener was out so we were locked out in the heat for a little while, but luckily James pulled a McGyver move and found a window that was unlocked to break in the house. We had a great swimming fiesta with all of the kids when everyone finally got back.
Levi's getting more and more used to the swimming pool--he likes it when the water is warmer. He'll jump to you from the steps and jump/fall on you from the side of the pool.
Isaac has made alot of progress with swimming--James got him splashing around by himself on a circle floatie and now he'll "swim" to James from the steps if James scoots backwards.
Lara took the older kids to the zoo Wednesday and Friday morning and I stayed home to play with Levi and Mathew--they both have so much fun together--racing trucks, dancing to the Veggie Tales and Monkey song, and signing together when I read them stories.
Friday afternoon we headed up to Snowflake to spend time with my Dad and Sheila. Jenny and Fredy came up that night too and we all went out to eat at Ava's cocina. Isaac just wanted rice and beans and Levi just wanted to much on chips. James and I usually have to take turns patrolling the boys at restaurants so we can both eat.
Saturday we played golf with the boys. They were in heaven driving around on the gold carts and they loved trying to swing the clubs to hit the balls.

Adios Mexico

2008-08-20T19:41:00.000-07:00

El Aquario

2008-08-20T19:40:00.000-07:00

La Noche

2008-08-20T19:39:00.000-07:00