Getting ready for the move

April 28-May 4, 2008
* On Monday my mom and I went on one last paint touch up frenzy and tried to get most of it done. Its amazing how much of the paint she’s been able to match. We couldn’t have hired someone to do the work that she’s done. She was also able to get my circle mirrors down and get the residue off the walls with goo-gone. We stayed up lated working and we listened to the cds from the scandanavian guy that she brought. His name is ……….and his whole focus was living in the moment and being fully present in the now. Deep thoughts.

We took my mom to the airport on Tuesday morning and I stuck around with the boys to ride on the airport inter-terminal trains and go on the elevators and escalators. Isaac and Levi absolutely loved it.
On Wednesday we had one last big spray park play group party with Erika and Christina. Isaac really loves running through the water now and getting wet. When we first moved here he was afraid of the water, but now he’s all over it. Levi likes jumping in the puddles, but he’s still hesitant about getting sprayed with the cold water. Can’t say that I blame him.
We also had a great Spanish storytime at our house this week. The highlight for Isaac was that Claire came over and did the “caminar caminar y parar” song with him.
Big dessert auction fund raiser for the Young Women on Saturday—things actually went amazingly well and our whole ward really got into the fun of the bidding process. We raised about $450 which was perfect for what we needed. I ended up getting a big plate of rice crispies for twenty bucks and that was just what the boys wanted.

Mas Fiesta

Fiesta at Maribel's house

Fun at Claudia Hartenstine's house

summer time begins early

April 21-27, 2008
Levi’s language is exploding this week. He is saying more and more words and is very communicative.
I went to the airport on Monday to drop off Marti and pick up my mom. We did a little grandma swap and the boys loved the adventure of going to the airport and riding on the shuttle bus and interterminal trains.
Having my mom here this week was amazing. She performed miracles with painting touch up and fixing our stain glass door. She also helped me do a ton of sorting and organizing.
My mom took the boys on long walks to the park several times and that was SO helpful to be able to have time to sort stuff out. I’m trying to purge the house of any extra stuff that we’re just not using or don’t need anymore and just get things ready to move in general. On one of the early morning walks that she took them on, they saw an armadillo and the boys were very pumped.
The big excitement of the week with the boys was our Spanish story time adventure on Friday. We started the morning by visiting my friend Claudia Hartenstine and letting the boys jump on their new trampoline. Isaac and Levi were in kangaroo heaven. They love to bounce. Then both of the boys took turns driving around the backyard with Michael in his little hot wheels truck. I got some great video footage—it really looks funny to see Levi bumping around Claudia’s backyard in a miniature truck. Then we went with Claudia over to Maribel’s house for Spanish storytime. We had a great turn out and the color dance was amazing. We also celebrated Isaac, Luz, and Leo’s birthdays. Maribel had a little nemo fish piñata and the kids loved it. Amerika and Ava came too and after we ate pizza some of us went swimming in Maribel’s pool. It was a bit chilly but Isaac insisted on getting in. Then Luz dared me to jump in the deep end with her so we ended up being the only crazy moms who got completely soaked. What was even more funny is that Luz and I have the exact same swimming suit. Its uncanny how similar our tastes are. We have the same stroller, the same little blue table, and we own many of the same toys. Crazy. She’s like my Latina twin.

Happy Birthday Isaac!

April 13-April 20, 2008
Monday, Monday. I’m really going to miss the gym we have here called the MAC (Memorial Athletic Club). It saves my sanity to be able to go there and leave the kids for an hour in the nursery while I go “work out” Actually sometimes I just zone out on the couch or read a book or make a phone call. Basically its just nice to have a break from the kids.
Eloisa and “Levis”—My neighbors nanny asked me why we game our son such a strange name like “Levis como la ropa”
On Isaac’s birthday eve, our neighbor Claire came over to play with Isaac since she wouldn’t be able to make it to the birthday fiesta on Wednesday. Isaac insisted on dancing to the Elephant song and the Lion Hunt song repeatedly in the backyard. Luckily Claire humored him and Isaac was in heaven. Levi played along too and he only collided with Isaac once during the Elephant song.
For Isaac’s birthday on Wednesday I basically made it easy on myself by having a fiesta at the same time as playgroup and did a joint celebration for Rocco and Zachary as well. We got a dozen balloons at Randalls and Isaac and Levi absolutely loved running around the house with the balloons. It was also the first time in a while that Isaac didn’t insist on “setting free” all of the balloons.
Isaac wanted cupcakes with pink frosting and brownies with m&m’s for his birthday treats. He even blew on his candle (with a little help), but it was heartening to see that he wasn’t completely terrified of the flame on the birthday candle.
Marti came on Wednesday so she was here for Isaac’s birthday party and Isaac was pretty pumped that his grandma came all the way from Utah for his dia especial.
Early Thursday morning James and I left on an airplane to Philadelphia and Marti stayed in Houston to take care of the kids—she deserves a million gold stars for helping us out like that. It would have been very difficult to do the Wharton welcome weekend with the kids.
Philadelphia thoughts—my first impressions of the city were that it looked cold and very industrialized but that was just driving in from the airport. Once we got to town, I was very impressed with the historical beauty that you see in all of the downtown area. There are some amazing buildings and old colonial style town homes. They spilt James and I into two different groups for the orientation workshops We thought it was pretty weird at first but then it turned out to be a huge blessing because I met a cool couple in my group that we might not have met otherwise and they’re the one’s that told us about the building where we ended up leasing an apartment. It’s a new building that wasn’t even in the housing guide—well new in the sense that it’s a renovated building—it used to be the board of education building. We love the openness of the apartments, the huge windows, and most of all—wood (albeit pergo) floors!!

Alondra's pink sun glasses. . .

April 7-April 12, 2008
Levi has now bitten Isaac twice now in self defense and we really want to nip this habit in the bud. He did it once when Isaac was pushing him away from a book and once when Isaac wouldn’t share something at the park.
So Isaac has been complaining about owie poops for the past couple of days like he’s really constipated, but he’s been able to have bm’s that aren’t that dry. Then today (Wednesday) he started complaining about owie pee pee—like it burned or something so I’m worried that maybe he has a bladder infection. I’ll take him in to the pediatrician tomorrow to see what the deal is. I really hope that he’s okay and back to normal soon.
So we went to the pediatrician and I had to get a urine sample from Isaac—not an easy task. I think it took 45 minutes but it felt like five hours. He does not like to cooperate when it comes to peeing. Luckily He finally peed in the cup and they did the urine sample and he doesn’t have a bladder infection. He is however officially “potty training resistant” I discovered. I asked if she had any suggestions on potty training and she didn’t really give me any advice—just a few printed sheets from a parenting site on the internet that talked about how any kid over three who isn’t trained after several months of trying is “resistant.” Sounds kind of like a mutant virus. I guess I already knew that Isaac was a bit of a potty training disaster, but now I guess there’s an official term for it. He really refuses to go in the toilet. James did get him to pee in the river while on a walk this weekend. If only we can convince him that the toilet is just a small river.. . a mini lake.
Levi loves swiping Isaac’s food when he can get away with it. On Sunday, James was on breakfast duty and when he left the boys alone for a minute he heard a big ruckus. When James asked what happened Isaac ran to the time out spot and said he had pushed baby Levi, but Levi was rolling around on the floor in the playroom with a big smile on his face and holding up the small bit of pancake he had swiped in victory. His smile said everything.
Levi has discovered that he can get extra bounce on the bed if he holds our hands while jumping. He’s become a jumping maniac.
Levi almost poked his eye out with scissors and almost ran behind a car backing out in the church parking lot. We’re just really glad he’s alive and in one piece at the end of this week.