18 months

Natalia had her 18-month check-up on Monday and I am happy to report that she has cracked 20 pounds! Officially, it was 20 lb, 5 oz. We've been waiting for this blessed day in order to turn her around in her car seat (from rear facing to forward facing), although I haven't actually done it yet. I made the mistake of watching a safety video online that compared the impact of an accident on a rear facing kid to a forward facing one, and it made quite an impression. Rear facing is much, much more safe, although also much, much more frustrating for everyone involved.

However, regardless of the car seat thing, our little tyke is moving up in the world! The nurse measured her at least an inch tall again - this nurse seems to have issues with measuring, which I find odd, since it's a major part of her job (although she is very nice and was once on an airplane with us) - so I'll hold off on that number until we get a more accurate one!

Anyway, in addition to the stats, Tali (as we have taken to calling her) is doing very well. She can say lots of words, she answers questions, she can almost run and walks very well, etc. And, today she had her first haircut! We did it ourselves, as we really just wanted to clean up the back. Luckily, her hair is wavy and quite forgiving, so it didn't matter too much if we got it straight! Hopefully now it will be able to grow out at closer to the same length all around. All I can say is thank goodness we didn't have to trim any more than we did! We will definitely be going to a professional place when she needs a real haircut...but, judging from how long it has taken her hair to get this long, I think the next one is going to be a long time off! Someone was a bit wiggly and more than a little skeptical about the whole process, but she did very well overall. Here she is!



Finally, a big thank you to Auntie E, who watched the kids for us so we could go out to dinner on Monday. It was one of our many anniversaries - the 9th anniversary of when we first got together. She and the kids had a great time! A big thank you as well to my parents and Sacha's mom, who watched the kids last week so we could go out for Sacha's birthday, and to Apa, who is the most wonderful date-night-giver on the planet and who comes over every Wednesday to hang with the kids. Thanks, everybody!!

The best thing about Christmas...

...as far as I'm concerned, is getting matching outfits. For the kids. Although, I guess Sacha and I could get our own matching outfits and aim for the kooky-matching-lesbian-couple look in 2010. I think it's cuter and less freaky on the kids, though.

Anyway, their Bubby and Poppa got them some matching shirts and even some matching jammies. I never would have thought that I would like dressing them similarly, but I have to admit I get a kick out of it. This was especially true this evening, when the kids both wore their new doggie jammies to bed.

Talia kept signing "dog, dog" and trying to say "woof" and pet the dog, and then she realized Teo had a dog on his shirt, too! And so she wanted to pet the dog. Meanwhile, Mateo was making kissy faces at himself in the mirror. Adorable.


Other great things about Christmas, from the kids' points of view:

A new chef costume:


A new rocking chair:


And, a table full of our favorite people, which was the best part of all.


This was the first year that Mateo really got the concept of Christmas and Santa and presents and all that stuff. We tried an abbreviated explanation of the spiritual aspect of Christmas, but who knows how much of that sunk in. Some of the highlights included three nights in a row of family dinners, a lovely candlelight service at my grandmother's church, lots of present opening and paper throwing on Christmas morning, and more delicious food than we could eat.

On a less happy note, Sacha's mom had to leave earlier than planned tonight to go and be with her own mother in Atlanta, who may be facing the end of her long life. We're thinking of them and wishing them a peaceful journey ahead.

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday, Sacha! She's had quite a nice birthday, if I do say so myself - presents with the family this morning, shopping with her mom after that, then lunch and massages (courtesy of my parents) with just the two of us, and then cake and fun after that. Whew! Here she is with her two erstwhile helpers this morning...


...and making gingerbread earlier this month. We love you!

The wrong hair

Sacha had a work colleague over this afternoon to do some planning. This colleague brought along her elementary-school-aged son, who spent some time playing with our kids while I supervised and the other adults worked.

At one point, the little boy asked me, out of the blue, "so what's going on with having two moms in this house?" I don't think Sacha's colleague knew anything about us being gay until she got to our house, as she's new to the school, and no one had said anything about it after they got here, either, but the kid must have figured it out.

"Well," I said (thinking, I knew this day would come eventually, but what do I say?), "that's just what our family is like."

He immediately had another question about the two moms: "Then why does one of them have the wrong hair?"

I thought he was talking about me and my short hair, but I wasn't sure, so I asked him what he meant. So he said, "You know, the one in the other room has light hair." Like if we all had matching dark hair then it would obviously make sense for us to have two moms, but since one of us has blondish hair, then it's just all wrong.

I tried not to laugh and wondered what he would ask next, but he had moved on, and that was the end of it! Hilarious. Perhaps I should pick up some hair dye for Sacha?

Carbon copies

Sacha was under the weather on Sunday, so I took the kids out for an adventure in the morning. We went to different Trader Joe's than we normally do, because this one has kid carts that Mateo wanted to push. He pushed his cart around the store and put in lots of things that we needed and avoided clipping any senior citizens in the ankles, so I considered that a great success!

After we finished shopping, we wandered over to a part of the shopping center that I used to visit as a child. We traveled up here frequently so that my mom could attend meetings for the family business, as well as for holidays and other things. Right before Christmas, this shopping center would put down a bunch of hay and a fence and bring in actual reindeer to hang out there. I remember being amazed by them as a child. Since we were there, I described the whole reindeer scene to Mateo and told him we were standing right in the exact spot where the reindeer had been. This totally rocked his world! We called Grammy, who had also witnessed the reindeer way back when, and he described the whole thing breathlessly. The hay! The fence! The reindeer!

Then, I took them to the Moonstruck Chocolate Cafe for a treat. This place is quickly becoming my favorite dessert venue. They have fun little chocolates for the kiddos and delicious dark sipping chocolate for grown-ups. And this was my whole point when I started this post: We ended up sitting next to another mom and her daughter, who was in between Teo and Talia age-wise. The mom took one look at all of us and said, "You're like three carbon copies of each other!"

Before Natalia was born, Mateo and I used to get comments like this all the time when we were out together, and even when we were with Sacha. It has been important to us to build relationships with both kids without dwelling overly much on who is biologically connected to whom, so I usually would just say thank you and change the subject. I have been surprised that the same "they look just like you!" conversation has happened, and frequently, since Natalia has been born. When she and I are out together, people often comment on how much she looks like me. This was the first time it had happened with both kids, and I just had to laugh! There was no way to explain the whole thing, so I just stuck to the tried and true: I said thank you and changed the subject.

Cutest

Now that we have attended our very first preschool holiday performance, I think I can say objectively that it was the cutest thing I have ever seen. These groups of three-, four-, and five-year-olds belting out songs in Spanish at the tops of their lungs (while also randomly running away, spitting on their hands to rearrange their hair, drowning out their fellow performers, and wiggling to beat the band) were just too adorable to be believed.

Apa came with us, and, despite pre-performance discussion about how we all might get emotional and be in tears by the end, it was actually much too funny to even think about crying. And, for all the wiggles, they were impressively organized. The head of the school (who apparently never read the manual about what little kids shouldn't be able to do) had organized the older kids into a bell choir. Yes, a BELL CHOIR. Each kid had a bell and a teacher held up a color coded score and the kids chimed their bells right when they were supposed to. Impressive.

After that, we all milled around and ate using the plates and utensils and cups we were required to bring from home so that we might help save the earth (oh Portland, how I love you). I made these cookies but never got to eat one, so I guess they were a hit!

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Going in reverse chronological order, we spent the earlier part of today with Uncle Galen, who is in town for the holidays. He earned major good-uncle points for going with us to the indoor play park at a local community center, and for persevering through lunch with a cranky toddler and her very overstimulated older brother. He helped me make the aforementioned cookies by pulverizing handfuls of peppermint candies, and he eventually succeeded in winning over his extremely skeptical niece. A well-timed present of crayons shaped like cats from Galen's girlfriend proved to be the final tipping point for Talia, who then began wandering around saying "mao, mao, mao" while handing them one by one to her uncle. Here's Uncle Galen with Mateo and Yarn, who has finally started to socialize with us during the day.


And, in a final bit of news, someone actually recognized us from this blog when we were at the play park today! Another mom came up to me and said "This must be Talia from The Adventures of Teo and Talia!" This started another round of my on-going internal debate about how much info is the right amount to share on the internet, but I have to admit that it was fun and I also felt a tiny bit famous!

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I tend to write about mostly the fun stuff in this space, but it has been a long and stressful week around here. Sacha has been run through the wringer by some students with major home issues and even more major behavior issues. She's also had some long days at work, which means long days for everybody. We got that astronomical quote on the sewer, and there's been a lot of running around and trying to get everything ready for the holidays.

Sacha and Mateo are both on vacation from school for the next two weeks, starting today, so we're all hoping for some rest and relaxation and nice time with our families. Of course, our weekend is going to be insanely busy (among other things, we're going to look at a house in a nearby neighborhood that has an elementary school in which we're becoming interested), but maybe the relaxation can start after that? At the very least, I'm planning to make more peppermint chocolate cookies sometime soon, so I can find out what they actually taste like!

One more thing: I just have to post this photo of Talia with her new shirt on. One of Sacha's students gave it to her, and it says, "Good things come in small packages." I could just eat her up like a little holiday dessert!

A number of things

As Sacha alluded to in the last post, we had a blast making a gingerbread house with some buddies this weekend. My grandma (my dad's mom) used to be very big on gingerbread during the holidays. We always did a big day of making gingerbread cookies and we would also usually put together a gingerbread house at the same time.

When she passed away, I ended up with all her gingerbread paraphernalia, including this great, heavy cast iron molds for a gingebread house. I never had any idea how much work she must have put into getting everything ready for us until last week, when I finally did it myself!

Thanks to some help from my lovely wife, who was home with laryngitis all last week, we made it into a big project with the kids - mostly Mateo - who helped shop for candy decorations, make the dough, press it into the molds, etc. Then, we had some friends and my brother and his girlfriend over and we all put it together, well, together! We had a really fun time. It reminded me of all those times we'd get together at my grandparents' house and laugh and laugh as we consumed massive amounts of sugar and cookie dough!

We had a fun rest of the weekend, too. We lit Hanukkah candles with the kids for the first time on Friday and Sunday nights (accidentally forgot Saturday - oops!) and that was fun. Sacha found some catchy Hanukkah music and we danced and played Go Fish while the candles were burning. We had a funny moment on Friday night, in which I was attempting to explain both Hanukkah and Christmas and how people celebrate God in all kinds of different ways. I wasn't getting complicated or anything, but after a few seconds, Mateo cut me off and said "Did anyone hear a fart?" We just about died laughing. Clearly the religion stuff was not as interesting as bodily functions!

Then, on Sunday, at the invitation of my grandma (my mom's mom), Mateo and I went to an organ concert at her church. They have this huge amazing organ and it's named after my great-grandmother, which is pretty neat. The concert was all Christmas pops music and Mateo was transfixed for most of the time. They had moved the organ console to the middle of the stage, so he got to really see what the organist was doing. It was very cool! We left at intermission, as the wiggles had started to set in, and I took him out for a sweet treat before coming home. We capped off the night with latkes and homemade applesauce and sour cream for dinner, and then a surprise visit from Apa, who had been away for the weekend and came home early enough to see the kids before bedtime.

Whew! Today has already started with a bang - our roof is being fixed as we speak and there's no rot underneath it. This is a huge relief. They're almost done and then we'll have no roof worries going forward. Unfortunately, we also got our first quote on building a new sewer line and holy crap, it is going to cost a boatload of money. Good thing we've started listening to a relaxation meditation at bedtime, because we are going to need the stress relief!

December pictures

Here are some different pictures of our December.

Our near constant pose every day: watching the construction next door.



Projects with scissors. Fun!



Our new cat Yarn receiving some Natalia cuddles.



Natalia thought that the flour was more tasty than the gingerbread dough!



Gingerbread construction!

Making the molds for the house.




Working on building the house.





The completed project!

Out of work for a week

On Monday, my throat felt a little bit sore and at the end of the day I had the foresight to get some sub plans prepped, just in case. By an hour after school, my voice was 75% gone. Yesterday, it was 80% gone and I really tried not to talk. And today I really have NO voice, and have whispered less than 50 words total over the course of the day.

Honestly, though, if I have to be home sick, at least I don't feel horrible! I would take this over a cold or fever any day.

Being on my own personal silent retreat has been, well quiet! The first day, although I couldn't talk, I was a whirlwind of activity. I bought Mateo two more sets of nighttime underwear, emailed the roof person, went to the library, bought a coupon book for the metro area, went through the coupon book and put them up on the fridge so we would actually use them, and this was all before lunch time! I might not have had a voice, but I had a decent amount of energy.

Today, I have been a bit more low key. Alayna and I went out for a nice date tonight, and I did lots of writing, while she did lots of talking. It's wonderful that we can enjoy each other so much, even if I can't talk! I just hope my voice comes back soon.

The three trials of our house

The kids and I were hanging out with some friends today and one of them asked how we were all doing. Great!, I said. And we are. Things are good. Good, good, good. Except, I somehow forgot about the relatively major home ownership issues that have cropped up recently. I think I might be in denial, because I didn't even think about the fact that I could have mentioned them until I was driving home. We're hoping 2010 will be a better year home-wise, because the last part of this year has held more than its share for our poor casa.

1. The unbloggable thing, which is moving slowly towards resolution. Very stressful, but thankfully not as disruptive as it could have been.

2. The roof. We have a great roof over 95 percent of our house. The last 5% is a flat roof over the porch and front room. When we bought this place, the inspector mentioned that we might need to replace it at some point, but we figured that was a ways off. Turns out, 2009 is a perfect time to replace it, because it is buckling and leaking and in bad shape. We've gotten three quotes on fixing it and the last guy, upon climbing down the ladder from checking things out, informed me that he had been able to lift up the roofing material and plywood with his hand. That was a great moment. We're just crossing our fingers and praying that there's no major water damage underneath. If there is, at least we're catching it now, but ugh. It will be costly.

3. The sewer. In addition to the new house being built on one side of us (which has been all the entertainment I thought it would be, and more), our neighbor on the other side is about to start some major remodeling to his house. In the process of getting plans together, he had his sewer line scoped and the contractor discovered that we have a shared sewer line, which is a no-no. Said contractor reported this to the city and now we both need to get new sewer lines. As there is no access on our street, we have to go all the way through said neighbor's yard to connect to a main line. Again, stressful and expensive. Argh.

Bad things come in threes, right? So, hopefully, nothing else is about to come out of the woodwork!

'Tis the season

1. We got our Christmas tree this weekend. It was beautiful, albeit freezing, outside and we decided to learn our lesson from last year and go while sun was shining. (Last year, we passed up a beautiful sunny day because we had other things planned and then ended up cutting down our tree in the icy rain and mud the next day.) We went to a much less crowded place this time and found a great tree.

Sacha and I have been compromising on tree types since we got together nearly 9 years ago. She likes doug firs and I like the nobles, so we alternate years. Then, this year, we discovered the grand fir. It is like a cross between the doug and the noble - perfect! Luckily, we're fast decision-makers, so we found our tree without too much going back and forth. We're enjoying the ability to do it quickly now, before the kids get old enough to get involved in deciding! I am totally into this cutting-d0wn-the-tree-yourself thing. It takes about 5 minutes and is fun for all involved. While I was sawing, Sacha and the kids went across the trail and found a tree that was just Mateo's height, which wowed him about as much as you might expect. Now it's home and all decorated and the whole house smells delicious.

2. Sacha and I have a (now, not so) secret affinity for Christian music. Neither one of us is exactly Christian, but the music is just so uplifting most of the time! So the local station is on our preset list in the car and we found ourselves listening to it on the way home from getting the tree. Turns out, these days it's all Christmas music, all the time! We were all feeling very Christmas-y as it was, so that just added to it. We turned the chorus of "Ding Dong Merrily On High" - "Gloooooria, in excelsis deo" - into "Glooooooria, in excelsis tickle Mateo!" and that was quite well received. He kept saying, that's not how it goes!, but then begging for more.

3. This time of year always brings up my feelings about Christmas itself. As I mentioned above, I wouldn't call myself Christian, but I do believe in God and I love the rituals of the Christmas season. There's something about celebrating new life and hope in a season of cold and darkness that gets me every time. This has been especially true since we've had the kids in our lives. All those songs about welcoming baby Jesus and celebrating his birth always make me think about our kids' births and our feelings of joy and euphoria when they came into the world...and beyond that, how every child should be celebrated and welcomed that way on their first day.

Anyway, all of this is to say that Christmas is feeling particularly fun and celebratory this year. Now that Mateo's old enough to get excited about it, he's taking us all along for the ride. Every time we dare to turn the tree lights off, he notices and asks to have the tree turned on again. And now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go turn on the tree before he wakes up from his nap!

Love

We are all smitten by our new cat. We loooove her. Her name is definitely going to be Yarn, and Mateo is very, very proud to have named her.

She is the sweetest, cuddliest cat we have ever had. She's definitely still adjusting to our home - she spent most of the day hunkered down a dresser in the bedroom - but she started coming out more and more as the day went on. And, we were all greatly relieved when she demonstrated that she does, in fact, know how to use a litter box.

When I went in for a few minutes by myself after Sacha came home, she trotted out, jumped up on the bed, and snuggled onto my lap. And she purrs whenever we come into the room. She is showing all the signs of being the lap cat of our dreams! Yay for a new kitty!

Introducing...

...our new kitty!

It all started with a mouse in our house yesterday. After finding said mouse, we began to think more seriously about getting another cat. After hearing the adage that seeing one mouse usually means there are more in the wings, we decided to get back into the cat business, and fast. Two trips to the Humane Society later, we found our girl! She is 6 years old and mellllllow. Very mellow. We hope she will be a lap cat, but also a hunter!

She let both kids hold her on their laps and drape toys all over her in the little visiting room when we met her. That was when we knew she had to be our cat! She seems sturdy and lovable and calm. We brought her home and she is peacefully getting acclimated in our bedroom.

The Humane Society people seemed a bit surprised to see us again, once they pulled our records up in the computer. Perhaps this is because we've gone through four cats in the last five years. Of those, one ran away, two died in freak circumstances, and one was a beloved stray that we eventually brought to the Humane Society before Mateo was born, since he was quite the scratcher and pretty aggressive. We could use some better luck for this kitty!

Mateo suggested the name Yarn and we think it may stick.

Here she is! This is taken from the website, so excuse the random background...