Thanksgiving Week

We were supposed to fly to Utah to visit my beloved maternal grandparents and uncle for the Thanksgiving holiday.  Unfortunately, my mom's boyfriend of three years, Mack Stewart passed away sort of unexpectedly.  He was diagnosed with esophageal cancer and three weeks later passed away.  Cancer sucks.  

We, therefore, changed our plans and went to San Antonio to spend the week with my mom to support and comfort her.  It turned out to be a great family time week.  We ran errands, prepared for Mack's funeral, cooked a delicious Thanksgiving meal together, watched movies, jumped rope, had several people over who brought food and just had some good old fashioned family time.  

For the actual Thanksgiving Day, we had my in-laws (Bret's parents, sister and uncle) over as well as my aunt who lives in Italy (but spent a year in the States), my dad and sister.  Tia Sofia is an excellent cook and makes it all look effortless.  I love having her around in the kitchen any time I have to cook for a lot of people.  She made the turkey and several of the sides.  I think the highlight of the dinner meal though was the cheese and fruit platter that Andrea, my aunt put on.  There were over 15 different kinds of cheeses and they were all delicious.  Our family loves cheese (who doesn't?).

After it was all said and done, the girls watched girlie movies while the guys watched THE University of Texas football game against Texas A&M.  Hook 'em.  

Donde esta Elmo?

Just about every baby/toddler is attached to something - be it his/her pacifier, blankie, lovey, stuffed animal, etc.  Isabella has never really been an attached girl.  She had a lovey we put in her crib when she was a baby, which she never really took to.  She has several blankets, but prefers to sleep on top of her bed with nothing on top of her.  She has one baby doll whom she only plays with when a friend is over.  She gave up her pacifier pretty easily when she was about 18 months old.  

Now that she is 3 years old, Isabella has started taking Elmo around with her and constantly needs to know where Elmo is.  Elmo is a girl don't you know.  Elmo needs to be sung to.  Elmo needs to be bathed.  Elmo needs to take a nap and no she doesn't want any books read to her.  Elmo needs to be rocked.  As usual in our family, she has yet to watch Sesame Street.  I'm wondering if we introduce Sesame Street to her, if her opinion of Elmo will change.  Oh and lest not forget, Elmo likes to be photographed.  

Monkey

Isabella has been our little climber since she learned to crawl.  She would try to climb on everything and has never been afraid of heights.  When we were at my mom's house for Thanksgiving, she found my mom's grapefruit trees and climbed them over and over.  Since she's really into wearing dresses and prefers them over any other type of outfit, you will almost always find her in a dress.  She was climbing one of the trees while we were inside when we heard a scream.  She was hanging from the tree by her dress.  It was really amusing to us, but not amusing to Isabella.  The scare did not prevent her from climbing the trees over and over again.  

Splish, Splash

Diego loves and I mean LOVES to take baths.  I think it is his favorite thing to do.  He would probably let me bathe him several times a day.  I sometimes bathe the kids separately because they like their water temperature so different.  Isabella is our ice queen - she likes her baths cold.  I mean cold - as in I would never bathe with her.  Diego likes his at a much more normal temperature - warm.  Usually I bathe Diego during the day (some time in the afternoon after one of his messy feedings before nap time) and Isabella at night before going to bed.  But, lately Diego has been getting very upset when it is Isa's bath time.  He sees the water running and thinks he is in for his bath time treat.  He starts kicking and getting very excited at the mere sight and sound of water.  He tries to pull up on the bath tub and see the running water.  When Isa gets in her ice cold bath and he has to be a bystander, he starts crying in disapproval.  Therefore, more and more now I have started bathing the kids together with warm water.  Isabella complains about the water temperature, but usually is appeased by the fact that she and Diego are bathing together, playing, splashing, etc.  It's a lot of fun to watch them interact.  

Jump, Everybody Jump

Jump roping is so much fun....even grandma can still jump!  Doesn't Abuelita Sonia look adorable jumping?  We had a rope tied to a tree and all (Abuelita Sonia, Bret & Isa, Tia Fia, and me) took turns jumping rope in my mom's backyard.  Isabella enjoyed jumping rope the most with her Papi.  She also helped a ton with the rope.  

I'll Take Some of That

We went to Jack's 1st birthday party earlier today.  The kids had a great time playing in the sand.  Diego was rolling all over in it and Isabella liked driving the big "cement" truck.  

When it came time to eat the cake, I asked Isabella if she wanted some to which she responded, "in one minute."  When it looked like I was about to take a bite of what she thought was her cake, she came running over and said she wanted it right then.  She sat down next to Diego in the truck and Diego was very much eyeing this dirt looking cake and tried to help himself to some.  Yummy dump cake.  

My Boys

We went over to a friends' home recently and realized that Diego and Bret were dressed the exact same.  Guess we had red and dark brown on the brain.  They both looked really good in their respective outfits.  Bret didn't have the cute bicycle socks to match, though.