Christmas Morning

I ADORE Christmas. I mean, what is there not to love? Family, friends, good food, presents, decorations, and, if you are lucky, a couple Tiffany blue boxes under the tree!

I have so many joyful memories of spending Christmas with my great big Ecuadorian family. There was never a lack of fun and excitement.

I cannot wait for the girls to have those memories too.

Here is a glimpse of their first Christmas morning:

There were no extravagant presents, and no big Ecuadorian party, but we did have the two most important gifts of all.

Eme and Marlo, in the words of The Lemonheads, you are "the puzzle piece behind the couch that made the sky complete" We are two proud mommas and we are lucky to have you.

Thanks to my amazing parents and magnificent sister for spending the holidays with us. What an amazing foundation of love you have given our family!

ready... set...crawl?

Marlo: "Ma, we are so over tummy time and rolling over; what else can we do?"

Eme: "speak for yourself Lolo, I for one am going to check out these flowers."

Mama: "well ladies, it is about time we start trying to crawl, don't 'cha think?"

"First, push up with your arms, good job Eme! Then push with your feet."

M: "Got it mom... and away I go!"

"eat my dust, Eme!"

WHOA!

"I've fallen and I can't get up"

E: "okay, up on the arms, and push with the legs."

"Here I go..."

E: "Wait, something went wrong." "Why am I under the table?" "Mom, why am I getting further away from you?" "Lolo, where are you?"

Lofty expectations for the not-yet 6 month set? Perhaps.

So for now, we wait until these two can get it together and "move forward" with crawling.

CRAZY?

Karen and Agata, thanks for the inspiration and the sweat-bands!

I will now need to harness my inner Kenyan; she might be in me somewhere? Right?

Just last week at work a friend told me I was like a hamster in a cage. (Meg) This is due to my new wonder drug- Prednisone. I joked with her that this was probably the only time in my life I would consider taking up running. Well, the universe must have been listening.

Stacey, Andi's cousin, wrote me and asked if I would be interested in doing a half-marathon for charity. In some sleep-deprived steroid-induced bout of CRAZY, I say yes. And here I am with the looming thought of a very long torturous race at the beginning of August.

Now, if you know me, you know that there are few things that would lead me to run. Number one would be any danger involving my kids, for comedic purposes, or if I need to get to a pair of shoes, purse, or any other clearance item before other greedy hands get to it. And lastly, running from the law; but now that I am a mom I find myself less and less in those situations.

I guess this post is about my acknowledging my commitment and putting it out there... mostly so I won't back down. I am really good at backing down, but not if I commit out loud. I will need running buddies, babysitters, massage therapists, lots of encouragement and my acupuncturist to help get me thru this!

So here I come, 13.2 miles of hell! I will take you on with strength and courage and hopefully a nice new pair of gym shoes in pink or something cute like that.

a good "big sis"

So here it is, the story repeating itself, without encouragement.

Our littles met their Cousin Nora for the first time, and it was perfect!

They all got along great and the family bond was started. This bond goes way back, and I mean really way back, because the two little gals in the story are very very old now! In their 40's!!!

When Andi was little she and her cousin Stacey decided that they were far too close to be just cousins; they were not sisters, so they would be "custers" and since then, this was the law!

I always thought this was cute and now that we all have kids we were hopeful that they would develop a closeness too.

As we were finishing breakfast one morning, Nora was helping Emerson with one of her toys. She paused, looked over to me, and said "I'm being a good big sister Auntie Mia". Well, if my heart did not stop and melt!! What a kid! Well Nora, this works out great because the chances of our girls having a big sis is, well... zero. And the chances of you having a little sis are about that too, so the job is yours! So, this post is for the best "BIG SIS" our girls could have. We love you Nora. Your tender heart and warmth is something that we treasure!!

BRAVO! BRAVO! your performance, your visit; we laughed, we cried, it was better than CATS!

Truman and his ladies

"... Ahhh, Sunday morning never felt so good!"