Happy Birthday Sofi!

This year for Sofi's birthday we decided to have some of her older friends get together for a Build-a-Bear trip and some dinner. Sofi still doesn't get what her birthday is or why people kept singing to her, but I thinkg she had a good time.

She saw Laura (coffee buddy/swim coach) and got very excited. She was even more excited to see the bag Laura handed her.
Gumballs!!! Yes!!!

We went into Build-a-Bear to choose a bear. Sofi and Papa looked carefully at all the animal choices and Sofi chose a bright green frog. Papa chose a black bear for Ofelia (hey, Sofi will probably get a gift on Ofelia's b-day too). All was going well until the stuffing machine started. About 2 seconds after this pic was taken, Sofi was crying her little eyes out in my arms. The machine is quite a bit louder than a vaccuum, and Sofi hates the vaccuum.Tia Rosie (godmother/future employer) helped Sofi forget about the loud sounds by helping her to give her new friend a bath.

Ofelia was excited about her bear, but wondered why Sofi was getting all the attention.

Papa helps Sofi with the birth certificate... it's pretty much blank because there were "way too many damn things to fill out" according to Mike. You can also see the underwear and top Sofi picked out for the frog. Sofi really chose the clothes. It was pretty funny watching her look at all the clothes and think about what would look best on her new pal.

Extremely proud and excited about her new friend, Sofi carried 'Reebet' all the way to California Pizza Kitchen.

Laura, her soon to be hubby Mark, and former coffee buddy (she switched jobs), Elizabeth sit across from the birthday girl.

Mama and Rosie help Sofi look at her new tats.

Doug (Elizabeth's soon to be hubby) thinks Ofelia might be hungry. She did have a cute dress on, but our little party girl took Doug's water and soaked herself.

I know her buddies weren't around, but Sofi enjoyed having her older friends there and paying so much attention to her.

Two years... where does the time go?

Tulum

How hot was it in Tulum? Just ask Pooh (Ofelia's chupon holder). I know this pic is fuzzy, but you can see that his shirt melted.
As far as we could tell Tulum was beautiful. It obviously had a lot of history to it.

But you try pushing 2 kids around in a double stroller in heat that melts plastic on a tour that takes you up and down stairs. We just made up what we thought happened here.

For example, this is the temple from that movie "Apocolypto" where they sacrificed people and then rolled their headless bodies down the stairs. Yes, mom, I'm kidding.

The kiddos didn't complain though. Ofelia was happy to pose with mom for a picture. I'm learning to hold the camera out to take pics of me and the girls cuz no one else (mike) thinks to.

Sofi was fully entertained when she figured out what iguanas were.

Sometimes she seemed to get a little too close.

Oh wait, this is too close! If I had known the guy was going to plop this giant iguana on my shoulder I would have had Mike pose in the picture. No wonder he grabbed the camera so quickly.

Sofi won't touch puppies, but give her an iguana and she's super happy!?

Back to the Room!!!

Even though we had a rocky start to our vacation, things ended up going pretty well. Sofi now cries and complains that we should go "back to the room" when she doesn't want to go home. Of course we had to find some swimming pool alternatives for a couple days.



Here's Sofi's favorite shopping center, La Isla. It had fountains where the water seemed to jump from one place to another. They also had these giant, clear beach ball looking things in the water that kids could get into and try to walk/move around like gerbles. Sofi called them the "bubbles" and we had to see them every time we went. Yes, we went a lot -- can't you see the Starbucks in the picture?!



Ofelia could care less where we went as long as she got to nap.

One of Sofi's favorite places was the jacuzzi bar. Does my kid have taste or what? Ok, she really just liked to play in the little shower that was there to hose off sandy feet. Whatever makes a girl happy, right?

Here's a shot of Papa helping Ofelia to "rub the sexy in"-- and there's a lot of it!

Eventually we made it back to the pools. Look, Sofi is even smiling!

Mama took Ofelia for a swim or two.

All of Mike's chicas hanging out by the pool.

What not to do on a beach vacation

I take full responsibility. As summer rolls in and all you parents out there prepare to take your little ones to the beach and the pool, please take note of what you should not do.


There we were, beautiful beach, four pools, a mellow down for whatever 6 1/2 month old, a toddler who couldn't wait to get into the water... what could go wrong?
I took Sofi into the toddler pool and she couldn't have been happier. She was splashing in the 2 foot deep pool, laughing, walking next to me as I held her hand. Then I pointed to show her the ocean. Unfortunatly, I pointed with the hand that was holding Sofi's hand. In the second or two that it took for me to point to the ocean, Sofi decided to dive onto her tummy and swim like she does in the tub. She sank. She wanted nothing to do with the water. We were there for a week.

Here she is crying at the beach.

Luckily, Ofelia was still happy. One out of two isn't bad, right?

This was Sofi's preffered pool view.

She seemed to be sort of happy when I wasn't dropping her in the water (that's how mike puts it).

Another shot of my carefree child hanging out by the pool.

Things ended up going pretty well. More pics/stories to come.

Of all the familes in the world I got stuck with this one?!

Ofelia is learning to put up with us. Not that she has a choice, but the poor thing has to put up with a lot some days. She's learning to smile around all our crazy though.

Papa was in a very "fight the power" type mood one morning and put Ofelia in her Che shirt and tied a bandana around her head. She had fun with it at first.

She was clearly done with this look soon after.Yes this is what we do t0 our children when they sleep.

Here's Papa's idea of a hat.

Again, not happy about the look later on.

One morning I was emptying the dishwasher and Sofi got quiet... too quiet. I looked to the rug area where she was playing and saw Ofelia half out of her jammies.

Sofi came back with some clothes for Ofelia and then started to change her diaper. I had to step in when Sofi started yelling "Ofelia pee, Ofelia pee!" Apparently, Ofelia peed on Sofi when she took off her diaper... hee hee hee, very funny to me.

I walked away after the diaper change to see how far Sofi was going to take this.

And stepped in again when it looked like Ofelia couldn't breathe. Yes, of course I took a picture of my suffocating child before I went to help her.

Our intentions are good of course, and most of the time Ofelia is pretty happy. I just wonder what she's thinking in that little head of hers. Did I say little? I meant that 17 inch, 75th percentile ball of cuteness on top of her shoulders. Oh the things she puts up with.

GO BARCELONA!

Rainy Day Loft Livin'

Not too long ago we had a very rainy weekend. Luckily, Mike had a great idea that kept us all occupied for the afternoon. We took a small crockpot and the chocolate bunnies that Sofi and Ofelia got for Easter and made a litte bunny fondue. Sofi had no idea what her crazy parents were doing.


Mike lit a candle and was trying to teach Sofi how to roast a marshmallow (yes, I'm sure this is dangerous) so he could dip it into the crockpot full of chocolate.

Turns out Sofi is not a big fan of fire. I guess all of those "No, fuego hot!" warnings really paid off.

She definitely kept her distance while Mike had his marshmallow torch lit.

Turns out Sofi is not a big fan of marshmallows and chocolate. This meant Mama had to enjoy it all by herself. The things I do now that I'm a mom! Luckily Papa found something that Sofi would enjoy "roasting" and eating.

Yes, he skewered a Starburst to the end of that stick. No, he didn't really light it on fire... not that he didn't want to try.

Ofelia showing mama some silly faces and smiles while Sofi and Papa enjoyed their Starburst Kabobs.

Fun times, although Ofelia looks pretty confused.