More birthdays, W is for Winnie the Pooh, and why we will never move away

I promise not to do this side by side comparison thing all year, but I just thought it was pretty remarkable that one year ago we celebrated Abuelo's birthday and Domi was a week old. Last year, Domi was a little yellow peanut asleep in the car seat on the kitchen floor as we ate an enormous dinner (surprised?). This year he was sitting at the table, sampling bits of this and that and laughing with us as Abuela handed tio Ian a knife she heated in the fire of the stove to try and melt through the Winnie the Pooh birthday cake. Sadly, I don't look that different do I? (I have lost a bit more wieght since then, but now OVER a year post-partum, I think the "baby weight" excuse is a little played)

We had a wonderful dinner of paella, that rivaled my brother's delicious paella that we had in Boston. Abuelo got some nice presents that we bought on our mall excursion the day before. It turns out that Domingo is a lot like his father in that he doesn't have much patience for shopping. So sad for me, since aside from food, shopping is one thing that makes me very, very happy. (It's also sad that the more I eat, the less I can shop because the worse I look in clothes!) Then we had to burn through the ice cream cake we bought for the birthday.

Look at that little imp tongue.


Earlier that morning, Leticia and I went for a jog as Chris watched the kids, and then we came home and had kringle for breakfast and the girls watched Winnie the Pooh. Graciela informed me that hers was shaped like W, W is for Winnie the Pooh. It's remarkable to me that in 2 short years, Domingo will be a walking talking little kid like these girls. They move from one obsession to the next, last week Robin Hood, this week Winnie the Pooh. They have opinions and ideas, and imaginations and their brains are like sponges. They remember that they came to my house and we went to the zoo and saw the tiger's collar. They want to do that again. I barely remember that we did that!
When I went over to their house Friday to watch them before Leticia got home, they were supposed to be taking a nap. They were jumping and playing and making a ruckus. I stood at the door where they couldn't see me and said in my most authoritative voice, "girls, go to sleep". I saw Sofia sprint to her bed and then one of them whispered "was that mommy or daddy?" and the other said "I think mommy". Later they were still playing, but every once in a while you'd hear "shhh", because they knew they were supposed to be asleep. They asked my dad how old he was going to be, he said 70, they told my mom that she needs to get a lot of candles.



They are so incredible, I'm really glad that we (and Domi) get to see them so much and they will grow up together.
I love going to my parents', hanging out with the primas, and watching them play. Domingo is just starting to be an interactive playmate. He can hug and kiss them, he crawls through the couch cushion forts, and unfortunately he takes their books and when they snatch them back starts to cry, so the girls have to hear that all familiar refrain of, he's littler than you so you have to take care of him. I'm not sure they appreciate that part, but I think in time they'll see him as another worthy playmate, or at the very least someone else to blame for thier mischief.

And yet another reason why we love living here is the familial support system. I don't know how people do it if they live away from their families. Today I had to go into work on my day off (the HORROR!!) and we really can't afford to pay Ana for overtime for situations like this. Luckily and thankfully, tia Jennifer said she could hang out w/ D for a bit this morning, so I dropped off the baby and the dog (she didn't sign up for that, but you want the baby, you get the smelly dog too!) and ran off to work for a few hours. She said they had a wonderful time, went to the park, the library, the coffee shop, etc. Then I got back, and we all went out for lunch. It was great. We will never be able to repay our families for all the great stuff they do for us, but I have a feeling getting to be around this guy at least makes it worth their while.