Valentine's Day 2014

Happy Valentine's Day! We had one of the best yet. Kevin takes James to a toddler group on Mondays and James made me his first ever Valentine there! I get so excited by this stuff. Kevin got me a dozen red roses and a really sweet card. I also discovered Kevin's short story collection dedication to me this week while perusing the pages on Amazon, and I totally cried. I love it.

Valentine's Day family picture

My first Valentine from James!

We started our day with a view of our new little Valentine. I had my 30-week sonogram. She's not so little. She's got huge chipmunk cheeks and the sonogram technician estimated that she's 4 pounds 8 ounces which was a little bigger than James's estimate was at that age, and is more normal for babies that are 33 weeks along. My dreams of avoiding a repeat c-section are dimming.

My littlest Valentine at 30 weeks. She wouldn't stay still.

In the evening, we were planning on going to a chain-style family restaurant because we didn't have a babysitter this year and we were bringing James with us. Unfortunately when we got to our chosen Long Island location, even though we got there very early, we discovered lots of families had the same brilliant plan. Suddenly we found ourselves driving to the scene of our 2012 Valentines Day dinner to get sushi. But this time we picked another sushi restaurant, Kaji (right next to the one we went to in 2012, Sushi Ya).

Kaji Sushi

Smelling the roses, so to speak

We got home a little late but I squeezed in a brief Pinterest-inspired photo shoot. Dada did not approve.

Blame Pinterest.

Kisses after bathtime and before bed.

Kisses

I feel really lucky for my 2.5 Valentines. I love you guys!

Last year we had sushi in Brooklyn...
Valentine's Day 2007-2012

Merry Christmas 2013!

Christmas has been good to us this year. Here are a ton of pictures of the Christmas cheer in our home in the days leading up to Christmas. I hope the holiday season has been kind to you as well!

Day we got the tree before decorating it.

Enjoying Christmas book from Grandma

James made his first Christmas ornament!

Decorating the tree together

Dada putting the star on top

"No touch" is really hard when there are all these lights and ornaments!

Christmas naps

Outside...

Inside: Itty bitty says hi!

James got to see Santa again this year. Still too starstruck to ask for a present this year.

Watching some nursery rhymes on Youtube and Christmas Mickey movies on the DVR

Trying to prevent Dada from sharing his popcorn.

Expedition to find missing toys behind the couch.

Merry Christmas from the Clous!

LI Children's Museum 2013

On Saturday, we scored free passes to the Long Island Children's Museum through our town library. We were actually trying for a different museum but they have a limited number of free passes to different museums and you check out the passes the way you might check out a book. The children's museum worked out pretty well though. We only had an hour there before they closed, but it's super boring for adults, so an hour was about the maximum that I could handle anyway.

James and Kevin outside the LI Children's Museum

We started with the temporary exhibit-- Bloodsuckers-- which was not a fun Twilight or True Blood exhibit, but a sobering one about bloodsucking bugs. I learned quite a bit about my bug nemesis the mosquito, but nothing new that I can actually employ against them.

James playing some kind of tick and mosquito game

He is not winning.

A huge gross tick

I looked around and there was a sand area and a water area, but both would have made James ill-suited to ride back in the car with us. The other areas were mostly classes, so we took James to the  toddler area behind a big school-bus-shaped door. It was a little area full of entertaining things for tots, but it was a little mini Wild West of stealing and pushing. We stayed on James as best we could, as even the little tiny areas were somewhat accessible. At least James had a great time.

James playing with a little town map full of movable vehicles

Toddler area clearing out as it gets close to closing time

James working at a bodega/grocery store like his Cuban and Irish great-grandparents

Running out of the construction excavator

Easter in Garden City 2013

James and the Easter bunny

We spent this Easter with some family friends in New York. Nana gave James an Easter basket full of goodies including a Mickey Mouse book and a Mickey t-shirt. James fell in love with the book and read it and pushed the musical buttons for ages. Now that we're home he's still obsessed with it.

James expresses delight over his new book

Nana reading to James

We had good company and good food. We had delicious ham, potatoes, corn, peas, and biscuits for dinner, and for dessert Kevin and brought an Oreo Easter-themed cake.

Easting everywhere we can find space

Tiffany tickling James

James chatting with Tiffany, Jen, and Mike

Hello, Oreo cake.

Photo with Nana

Even more exciting, it was Jen's 21st birthday! I am always surprised when I'm suddenly at someone's 21st birthday, and it happens to me by accident not infrequently. It's kind of awesome to be there on one of the best birthdays ever. Jen spent her day well-- with her family.

Jen's family

21 candles in a cake slice! Fire!

Happy birthday!

Even though James is not yet two years old, because Easter moves around so much this is actually his third Easter! He was just a few days old for Easter 2011. Last year, he was not quite yet 1 year old yet but James was running around Nick's family's house like a crazed toddler.

And here's my first Easter with Kevin in 2007. Our second Easter we spent in Arizona (link to my other blog) visiting his family seeing the Grand Canyon and Sedona.

James is 20-Month-Old Chatterbox 2012

James is 20 months old! We're getting so close to his second birthday!

Building a pillow fort, December 4

His vocabulary has exploded in the last month. He understands a ton of stuff in both English and Spanish. He says over 40 words now, mostly English. I'm going to lose track pretty soon, but here's a run down of the things he says regularly:

Things he loves:
1. light 2. a Mama 3. a Dada 4. tete (Spanish for pacifier)  5. a ball 6. a book

Food he loves:
7. milk (he also says this when he's hungry so this is helpful, rarely he says leche) 8. juice / jugo (He says both the English and the Spanish) 9. a coo (a cookie) 10. yogur (Spanish for yogurt)  11. apple 12. nana (banana) 13. agua (Spanish for water) 14. a cah (a cracker)

Animals:
15. a cat (also makes the cat noise meow) 16. a dog (also makes the dog noise woof) 17. a whale (there's one on his nursery wall) 18. a cow 19. sheep (also makes the sheep noise bah) 20. duck 21. chick 22. a mon (monkey) 23. pig (and pig noise oink/uck?) 

Other:
24. go! (when he wants us to play tag) 25. up (to pick him up) 26. "ow" (when he wants me to kiss his booboo)  27. hi!  28. bye!  29. eye/ojo (Spanish for eye) 30. nariz (Spanish for nose) 31. pelo (Spanish for hair) 32. choo-choo/ train 33. a door 34. a wall 35. a shoe 36. a car 37. a tree (Christmas tree) 38. a star (on Christmas tree) 39. baby  40. a T (Tigger from Winnie the Poo) 41. Oh tools! (from Mickey Mouse Club) 42. cache[te] (Spanish for cheek) 43. Santa 44. please (but he think this is the word he says to obtain yogurt bites) 45. touch (from us constantly yelling, "NO TOUCH."

James is the strangest kid. He hates car rides. He loves vegetables and routinely eats all of them at dinner before touching anything else. He also loves brushing his teeth. He'll ask for his toothbrush and refuse to relinquish it for hours sometimes. I think it's fair to say he takes after my dad in these things. Right?

Christmas jammies and Christmas tree, December 7

He seems to have gotten a little bigger because he's more comfortable in 2T pajamas now than the 18 month ones, but when I measure him I still get 34 inches. James loves the Mickey Mouse Club, Yo Gabba Gabba, and Blues Clues. He loves to nab things he's not supposed to touch. Kevin takes him to the park most days and he wanders around picking up leaves and sticks.

Bouncing on the bridge at the park

How he goes down the slide

To celebrate his 20-month birthday we took James to meet Santa for the first time. James sat there saying, "Santa. Santa. Santa." No one is surprised that Santa said he would be getting coal in his stocking.

James and Santa

Valentine's Day 2012

Kevin and I went out for sushi at Sushi Ya in Long Island for Valentine's Day, because Kevin is nice and knows that it's one of my favorites.  Michele very kindly came over to watch James. Without her there would be no love day.  James was particularly happy about her visit because he loves her, and she was his first Valentine's Day date. With a cute face like that, I'm sure it won't be his last.

James posing with the roses Kevin got me

James's first Valentine's Day!

James's first Valentine's Day date, Michele

Last year, I was very pregnant and we also went out to eat in Long Island. I ate a lot. The year before, we were still fancy childless people and went to the ballet.