The sun!

The sun! I found it! A sliver of it! It's still there! Somewhere behind the mountain! Somewhere someone is feeling it's lovely rays!

What happened here?

Woke up this morning and came into the hall and was greeted by this.

They didn't look like that before bed last night.

The kids had gotten up early and quietly decorated their doors. Then they each went into a room and informed us that if we needed to get inside, we were to knock and wait until they said we could enter.

Cold feet

You know it's cold when the kids, who never want to wear a sweatshirt or even socks sometimes, go and grab their slippers without anyone telling them to.

Come on, Quito, warm up!

Where's the sun?

Seven

Happy birthday, Agustín!

Taking turns

As I said, a familiar sight in our house.

Agustín waits patiently for his turn. Too patiently, perhaps, because Nico sometimes takes advantage and "forgets" that it is Tin's turn next.

Sometimes Tin gets a finger in there for some action of his own.

My Lifesaver

It has been uncharacteristically cold in Quito this last week or so. There has been no sun, and temps have gotten to about 35-38 degrees Fahrenheit at night. I know it is no Minnesota, where it has already snowed and they are already complaining about the wind chill, but there's no heat in our house!

Meet my lifesaver. My sister Amy made this for me a few years back, and it has been the best present I have EVER received. You put this little baby in the microwave for 2 minutes (I do four - I like it HOT!) and it come out all toasty warm. Then, I put it on my feet, on my lap, in my bed, over my shoulder, etc., and it keeps me from freezing my poor little toes off. Better than sliced bread!

I saw these this weekend at the Damas Bazaar. I thought about getting another one, for those really cold days, but they were $40-59! Ha, I wanted to tell them, my little sister can make one that is WAYYYYYYY better than yours, so there!

Amy, you should make a whole bunch and then try to sell them down here. You could make a small fortune I supppose!

Almost 7

He will be seven in three days.

Seven years ago, today was my due date. I went into the doctor and the doctor said we should probably do a C-section and I freaked out and begged for a couple more days. I was terrified of having a C-section. More than labor, for some reason.

Well, we waited until the 19th, when I went in and the doctor scheduled an emergency C-section because the fetus was in distress and the heartbeat was going down. Agustín spent a week in the hospital, 3-4 of those days in the ICU, and I still can't help but think that it was probably my fault.

Or maybe not. I don't think the doctor would have let me wait if it had been dangerous. I want to tell myself it was just one of those things. It happens. No one really understands it. But in the end the C-section wasn't the worst thing that could have happened to me. Having a sick baby was, and suddenly how he came out seemed the least of my concerns.

(Almost) seven years later I can look back in relief and know that he is OK. He is healthy and strong and seemingly unaffected by the incident. But I wasn't, and am not, and will never forget that terrible scare. To this day, I can't watch the video that Andrés taped for me to bring into my room so I could "meet" my little newborn until I recovered enough to go up to the ICU without seriously bawling my eyes out.

We love you, Agus!

iPod Junkie

This has become a familiar sight in our house.

Both kids love my iPod, but Nicolás is developing a serious dependency on it. Every day, the first thing he says when he sees me is, "Mommy, can I play on your iPod?"

(Another thing he says when I ask for a good morning or kiss first, is, "When I see you, I think of the iPod." Ummm....)

If I say yes, he gets excited and then goes into iPod mode. Worse than TV mode, iPod mode means you cannot get his attention for anything, save taking the iPod away.

Which results in a screaming/crying fit, which, in turn, results in my saying no more often than not. When turns into a screaming/crying fit, and so on.

He loves the Monster Truck and Shrek cart apps.

Agustín also enjoys the iPod but isn't nearly as obsessed with it.

Athlete

One of Nico's favorite things to do (well, aside from play on the iPod, but that's another story), is play ball. Soccer, basketball, volleyball, catch, baseball - you name it! Tonight he had me sweating, playing basketball in the house with him. I taught him how to dribble between your legs (still have it in me! Although it DID take some practice) and he LOVED it. He doesn't quite have it down yet, but practice makes perfect so they say!

Little surprise

Today I found this on my iPod Lock Screen. A little creation.

You might think it was a surprise from one of the kids. Nope, that was Andrés.

It's love, I tell ya!

Little Hands and Little (Pincher) Toes

Someone once told me to be sure to take pictures of my babies' hands and feet because someday I would miss those little fingers and toes. I didn't always remember to do it, but tonight Andres caught Nico's hands on film (chip? Can we say film anymore?).

He also caught him doing the pincher toes. Go on, Nico, make Daddy proud. Soon you'll be lifting tables.

Like father, like son.

Supper

When all else fails, make beef and broccoli or some other stir fry.

The Robot

Agustín likes to dance. He won't do it for us often, but today I got him on video doing the "robot". It is his trademark dance.

He likes to breakdance, too. Oh, sorry. That's break to you young 'uns.

Now I know what my mom felt like when she would see us kids wearing revived fashions from the 70's. Because all I'm thinking is, isn't "break" a bit dated? And I am all like, "Yeah, I know how to break dance. We used to do that when I was a kid."

Apparently not. Give it a new, hip (cool, rad, whatever the word is nowadays) name and suddenly it is something no one has ever heard of before. "No, Mommy, this is break. This is new."

Not-so-funny and not-so-hot

Hot Wheels and Funny are not looking so hot or funny these days. It has been unseasonably humid and they have completely rotted inside. Of course it has been over a week, but normally the pumpkins just dry out. These have gotten all Halloween-y on us, caved in mouths, black furry inside. The kids are getting afraid and the neighbors are complaining about the smell (or should be), so it's time to say goodbye.

No, Agustín my little pack rat, we can't keep them any longer.

A trip to Friday's

Every once in a while Agustín will ask, "Why don't we go to Friday's?" And so we do.

Today was one of those days. So we got out of our pajamas and took off for a meal of "the best chicken fingers in the world" and the kids' favorite dessert: Oreo Madness.

We got to the restaurant and suddenly Nico pointed over at another table. A look of angry hurt came over his face and he got real quiet. Sitting across the aisle were his grandparents, great grandma and uncle! We went and said hi, surprised of course that they were there too. But Nico couldn't get over it - they had gone out to eat without him, and he was MAD! He wouldn't talk or look at them for about an hour.

Until Uncle offered him his iPod. Then things were forgiven.

Big smile

There is nothing like coming home to this enormous smile.

It can make a bad day become the best day ever.

Boys vs Girls

Still the only way I can encourage Nico to get dressed on his own is by telling him that girls must be smarter, because Hannah can do it, and now Hailey is even getting dressed by herself! Then he'll quick get his own clothes on.

The battle of the sexes.

Take THAT! And THAT!

Nico really got into playing in the sand today. He went wild, attacking the sand with his entire body. Screaming bloody murder as he rammed the shovel into the sand, over and over.

He was really loud.

Lots of people stared.

A few smiled.

He did attract a band of renegade kids, though, who later had to be shooed away before they took off with all his sand toys.

Swimming Lessons

Swimming lessons have really paid off! We got to witness Agustín's skills first hand this weekend, as he doggie-paddled across the kiddie pool and showed us how to tread water in the larger pool. He still wears his floaters, but he isn't as scared of the water, and it is amazing to me that in another month or so he will be able to be without the floaters!

Mom, these swings are too LOW!

I thought it would be so much fun. Swinging, see sawing, monkey barring. But when Nicolás got to the park at the hotel and saw that the swings were too low for swinging, he got so mad! Lately he has been having these little temper tantrums, and today I witnessed one first hand. He kicked and hit the swingset as he said, emphatically, "These. swings. are. too. LOW!"

He was so mad, but I had to get a picture of that crabby crabby face.

I can't get over why Ecuadorians love to cement the kids' parks. Not very safety conscious. And Nico did end up falling and scraping his ankle, making a HUGE scene.

Like I said, I thought it was a good idea.