Weekend round-up

We are finishing off a lovely weekend with some family time at home.  We spent most of yesterday and last night at our new house, ending with chocolate pancakes (not as good as the mix suggested, by the way) and playtime this morning. 

We also had dinner last night at a place near our new house called Five Guys Burgers and Fries.  Apparently it's a national chain, but it's the only one we've ever heard of, so it's a new place for us.  It's loud and busy and crowded.  In other words, it's the perfect place to take our sometimes loud and busy small children!  (This is only slightly related, but it's also awash in peanuts - there are peanuts in huge barrels that you can snack on before you eat, and then everything is fried in peanut oil.  It would be a nightmare for someone with a peanut allergy.  Luckily, as far as we know, our family is okay in that regard.)  We filled ourselves to the brim with hamburgers, fries, and soda.  Sacha and I just learned on The Biggest Loser that the average American drinks 50 gallons of soda per year!  We average close to none per year, so it was no big deal to get one, but it's still quite the sobering statistic. 

Anyway, after we came home today and everyone napped while I worked out, we went out for a short hike in this huge park in the middle of the city.  It's a cool place, because almost right away you're in the forest and you feel far away from the city.  The fall colors were gorgeous and the kids did well with all the walking, which is saying something.  It used to be that Mateo wouldn't walk anywhere for any reason, so taking him on a hike now is pretty sweet.  Rosa rode along happily in the Ergo, which is also saying something, because she hasn't liked it too well in the past.

Speaking of Rosa, she just recently got her second tooth!  And, we have finally figured out what to do to make her laugh!  She's always been a big smiler, but getting a laugh out of her is tough.  Turns out, all we had to do was have Mateo or Tali act silly in front of her.  Once she gets an eyeful of them clowning around, she busts out giggling!  It is the cutest, and, of course, very heart-warming that her siblings fill her with such delight. 

Rosa has also been eating like there's no tomorrow and moving around as much as she can.  She hasn't figured out crawling yet, but she can scoot around the floor deceptively quickly.  She gets her eye on something and then figures out some way to get there.  She's getting harder to just hold, because she is so strong and wiggly!  She is happy, too, except at nighttime, when she transforms into a different baby.  We are struggling a little with what to do about it, because she wakes up crying and wants to nurse pretty frequently, which ends up meaning that she "sleeps" most of the night with us and Sacha doesn't get good rest. 

However, crying it out in the middle of the night is no fun for anyone, and we avoided it completely with the older two (I just got up with Mateo until he started sleeping through the night at 21 months, and similarly I got up with Tali to give her a bottle for quite some time, although she only woke up once at night for a long time before she finally started sleeping through.)  Anyway, I'm sure we'll figure it out, but for now, our once-great sleeper has turned into a tough nut to crack!

And that is the news from here.  It's been a great weekend.  Here's hoping for a great week, too!