Meeting Soren 2016

On Saturday, Kevin, James, Miranda, and I met Soren at 11 weeks old and had a wonderful visit with his parents Jackie and Rob. They are in the warm sleep-deprived glow of new parenthood. How I envy them! We came with yummy Cuban sandwiches in tote. Here are all the pictures I couldn't reduce for the sake of the upcoming "Spring Break" post.

Soren is cuuuuuuuuuute. I mean seriously!

Miranda loves babies now.

Clou kids versus the BEAR- Jackie saves them

More bear fun


James, Bear, Yossi

Rob let James and Miranda "walk" Yossi

Kids having fun in the playroom. Soren will soon!

Secret bear kisses.

Noche Buena 2015

Noche Buena is what Cubans call Christmas Eve. We always serve pork for dinner. Traditionally you'd have an entire pig roasted in a "Caja China" in a pit, but we made due with some well-seasoned pork tenderloin in the oven. Also, yucca in garlic sauce, rice and black beans, and salad.

Christmas Eve Clous

My mom, her boyfriend Bob, and his daughter Jen joined us this year. It was our first Christmas at the new house.

Mom, Bob, Miranda, Jen, James

Miranda loves Bob

Kevin making my mom feel awkward before dinner.

James actually helped me marinate the pork the night before. It came out great!

Dinner!

As usual, Miranda started dinner in her baby chair but...

... ended up on our laps.

We exchanged a few presents too. Usually just the adults do presents Christmas Eve (the kids have Christmas morning) but Jenny had to leave so she gave the kids an awesome Mr. Potato Head and a tiny mechanical puppy.

James re: Mr. Potato Head "We have like this at school!"

Puppy wearing Mr. Potato Head's glasses.

Hugging my big 4-year-old boy!

After I put Miranda to bed, Kevin, Bob, and I took James on a short little walk around the neighborhood to see people's Christmas lights. Did I mention it was like 70 degrees?

Christmas lights walk

Christmas Lights walk

Then it was time to prepare for Santa! 

James put out the milk and chocolate chocolate chip cookies we made together.

And then Kevin and James opened the chimney flue so Santa could come down.

And off to bed because Santa won't come unless you're sleeping!

Kevin's 35th Birthday 2015

Kevin had a low-key birthday at home this year. I made him his favorite for dinner, ropa vieja with rice and black beans. The kids also enjoyed it, though Miranda enjoyed it more. James was mostly interested in making it his birthday instead of Kevin's.

Feeding Miranda rice and black beans

Covered in food and worshipping her Dada

Cuban food joy

Kevin's not a huge fan of cake (I'm not either) but we got a little piece mainly for James's sake. Happy birthday, Kevin! We love you completely and we're so lucky to have you.

Blowing out his birthday candle!

Tasting some cake.

Gobble gobble.

Miranda checking out Kevin's gift from Andrew

• Kevin's 34th birthday at home
• Kevin's 33rd birthday in Manhattan
• Kevin's 32nd birthday in Brooklyn

Miranda's First Noche Buena 2014

My mother came over for Noche Buena and Christmas morning. She made us a delicious meal of pork, Moros, and yucca. We set up the dining table in the living room so we'd have enough room and so we could eat by the tree. And of course, since we dress up that night, I took a bunch of glamour shots. That's normal right?

My mom is kind of stealing the picture, but Miri can't wear makeup yet.

Two Cuban cuties!

We kept shouting "Candy!" so James would smile. Ridiculousness.

Miranda eats quite a lot now, and she loved her first Noche Buena feast. She gobbled up a ton of pork and slept really well. (In the bed with me still, disaster.)

Noche Buena meal

Thanks for cooking Nana!



Bob brought a modern-day smartphone viewfinder!

The kids got baths, and once they were in pajamas we told James to put cookies and milk out for Santa. We used the cookies he decorated with Sarah. I was maybe going to tell him about the Wise Men, but he barely understood Santa as it was.

Cookies for Santa!

Nana snuggles

• Christmas on Cape Cod 2013
• Noche Buena & Christmas at home 2012

Noche Buena & Christmas 2012

My mother came over for the holiday on the 23rd. It was a hard day for us because James has been sleeping poorly, which means the adults in the home are also sleeping poorly. On this particular day James woke up at 3:40 am, so Kevin was awake with him until 5:30 am, and then we switched-- he returned to bed, and I stayed up with James until his nap around 8 or 9 am. It was the second day he'd slept poorly so we weren't surprised. So we took it easy and ordered some pizza and drank some wine and beer.

Christmas Eve morning wasn't much better sleep-wise, but Mom cooked a big Cuban feast of pork, yucca, black beans and rice, so at least our bellies were happy. We moved the table to the living room because we don't have a dining room and the kitchen is small. Plus it's nice to eat near the Christmas tree.

Our second Christmas as a family of three

Our side of the Christmas Eve dinner table

After dinner, James had black beans on his face, hands, hair, and even inside his ears, so my mother gave him a bath and put him in pajamas before we opened presents.

Bathtime with Nana

Possibly the cutest naughtiest elf I have ever seen

We kept the presents modest because James is pretty young and doesn't understand what's going on yet. He's rapidly building vocabulary lately, so he mainly got books to learn more English and Spanish nouns. His Nana also got him a baby laptop though and he was so taken by it that he played with it for 30 minutes, repeating what it said and pointing to the pictures, and at one point he even fell over from giggling at it. Pretty awesome.

A finger puppet book!

Reading some "Go Diego, Go!" in Spanish

Santa Nana reveals the baby laptop

It was also a very special Christmas this year because Kevin recently won his fantasy football league championship. So we invited his star player, Arian Foster, to dinner. No, that didn't happen. Kevin did purchase and engrave a trophy for himself. I fully supported this and even went shopping with him for the cup. I also helped with the announcement to his fellow competitors.

Kevin, his cup, Arian, and me-- cheers!

Girls' Weekend in Warwick 2012

So then I went back to Warwick last weekend. Yes, really. Some of my college friends and I had decided to go visit Ash months before Superstorm Sandy and the Nor'easter had caused me to live in Ash's place and my mom's for an extended time. So back I went!

Actually, I was pretty excited because I wanted to see my friends and Warwick had just given me a little taste when I'd stayed there the week before because a lot of places were still missing power. Warwick is very charming.

I was supposed to take the bus up with Christina, but sadly the storm set her family back too much this week with work and no daycare for their little one. She was very missed.  I braved the bus on my own and discovered parts of New Jersey I'd never seen before. Megan drove up with Laurie and Janice from the Virginia-DC-Maryland area (one lady from each state). Shortly after everyone arrived on Saturday afternoon we had cheese and crackers for lunch.  The wine came minutes later when we went to the Warwick winery for a tasting. I especially liked the Harvest Moon wine we tried, a white with a strong grapefruit flavor that led me to dub it "a breakfast wine." The time has come! Afterwards, we bought a bottle of their famous cider and sat to enjoy it and listen to live music.

Janice, me, Laurie, Ash, and Megan doing the wine tasting at Warwick Winery

Enjoying live music at the Winery

So we were already having a lot of fun, after our first stop, and then Ash suggested dinner at a Cuban-Latin restaurant called Coquito. I was a little dubious because I'm kind of a Cuban food expert, but it was delicioso. Especially the maduros and yuca fries. And the Coquito mojito was coconuty and amazing.

Janice and Megan at Coquito restaurant

After dinner we went to Eddie's Roadhouse for drinks. We had so much fun on Saturday night. More fun than we little old ladies are used to perhaps. We ended the night on the couch trying to regain energy by watching some truly awful CIS episodes (but only because Laurie refused to watch some truly awful SVU).

It worked! The next morning we were so energized that after Megan and Ash went hiking (the rest of us slept in) we went to brunch and then walked around the Warwick shops all day. We also went to the cute little Farmers Market.

Walking Main Street in Warwick

Walking to brunch at Le Petite Cuisine

At the Warwick Farmer's Market

Then we had a total food binge on Laurie's homemade cookies, Ash's homemade pie, and a million snacks Janice brought. I am still recovering from the horror of my weigh-in.

Ash showing us the brussel sprouts in her garden. Why weren't we eating these instead?

At Ash's place, missing Christina

I had such a wonderful time and I love these women so much that I am already dreaming about our next girls' weekend!