Valentine's Day 2012

 Carlos and Titi love to wake up on holidays to see how Don and I decorated the breakfast table while they were sleeping.  They also look forward to see what we got them. This year it was a small plush animal, one bag of candy and an ITunes gift card.

Donuts for breakfast

Carlos, the entertainer

Everybody always tell me that Carlos is going to be a famous entertainer one day.  More exactly, he is going to design rides for Disney or for fairs.  He has always been fascinated by rollercoasters and all kind of wild ride and he loves to recreate them here at home.  He has a big imagination and he wants to do lots of things that we cannot do here at home.  His brain is always working on ideas and we feel bad for not being able to help him bring them to life.  He sees things in a different way than other kids.  Any kind of color light is good for rides like Splash Mountain, the office chairs are excellent for spinning kids and adults widly.  He is lucky to have been born at this time, when any music he desires to hear is available in YouTube.

I usually go crazy about all this. At any time, one room of our house is being used by Carlos for a ride. He uses all kinds of things for props.  Everything he sees reminds him of something in a ride and he wants to use it. I think we are the only family with two giant plastic garden carts in our family room.  I try to encourage him to use the garage but it usually gets hot, even at this time of the year and he begs to let him do it inside.  He has done The Cat in the Hat ride from Universal in his room, making a real mess and guiding kids in chairs with wheels while he plays the music and recites the verses.  He has made Halloween rides, (at any time of the year) with strobe lights and scary music, water rides, and right now he is into Space Mountain.  I rode the one he made yesterday and it was good but he spinned the chair too much.  Today, all the kids in the cul the sac were outside and he immediately made one in the garage. The kids came running and waited patiently for their turn at the ride.  I was nervous, thinking the chair was going to fall and one of the kids was going to get hurt.  I was working in the computer and I could hear screams the whole time. They always encourage Carlos to make more and to make them as wild as possible. I kept going to the garage to ask Carlos to be gentle but I am sure he made them spin fast as soon as I went inside.  I really hope people are right and all these messes in rooms are worth it.

Somebody has an Iphone 4S

And it is not Don...  Titi has been asking for an Iphone and for the 4S since it came out.  We kept telling her kids her age did not get Iphones but of course, in this neighborhood most of the kids have one.  Emilia got a 4S as soon as it came out and even Don was impressed with it.  Titi saved money from walking dogs, Mema and grandpa's presents, etc. and she kept asking us to get her one.  Don and I talked about it and decided she would get one.  We do not want to spoil her but since most kids have one around here, she is at a disadvantage.  She loves technology and gadgets and she would learn a lot from it. Carlos has not asked as much but now that Titi got one, he wants one too (and Don and I as well).

This morning, after her soccer game, Don and Titi went to the AT&T to get one.  Titi was ecstatic!  She has been using it all day.  She loves Siri, the assistant that answers the voice commands.  It is funny, because many times it does not understand what Titi is asking and she says funny things.  When Titi asked Siri to text mom, Siri answered something like "I am sorry but you do not have a mother".  I don't remember now but it was so funny we both started laughing.  Titi told her "I love you" and Siri answered "you must say that to all your Iproducts".

Titi's Safety Patrol trip to Washington

Four days after coming back from Mexico, Titi left for Washington, D.C.  She went on the same trip that Carlos took last year.  It is organized by the school district and approximately 1,500 fifth graders that are in the Safety Patrol program, all from Palm Beach County, go every year.  They go in two trips and Titi got to go on the first trip.  There were more than 800 kids going.  The tradition is to go by train but it takes 22 hours to get to Washington!  They say it is like a huge sleepover but the kids are very well supervised by teachers. 

Titi's chaperone was one of her third grade teachers.  We like her a lot so we were happy to know Titi was going to be in her group of 12 girls.  Titi's roommates were Emily He., Celeste and a girl namede Julie but I don't remember her.  Gigi was also in the group so I was happy for that.  She is a very friendly girl and Titi and her get along very well.  There were 4 groups of 12 girls and two of the teachers in charge of the other groups knew Titi very well.

I packed way too many things for Titi but I was worried about the cold. She used to not feel cold but now that she has lost weight, she seems to feel the cold much more.  When we were in Mexico, she kept saying she was cold and it was not that cold outside. I never had to wear a hat or scarf but Titi did and she insisted she was still cold. 

Titi was able to use her phone a lot so we kept in touch.  She was fine on the train but by Friday night, she was tired and started to feel homesick.  It was hard talking to her on the phone, knowing she was not feeling happy and I was so far away.  The teacher assured me Titi was having a great time and that she probably was just tired.  Every time we talked she seemed homesick and would say she could not wait to come home.  On Sunday night, once she was on the train, she texted me for 3 hours!  Last year, Carlos was only allowed to use the phone 3 or 4 times and just for a couple of minutes, this year, Titi was able to text for most of the trip back.

I could not wait to see her and Carlos and I left home early to go and pick her up at the train station.  The train arrived around 5:30 and most of the girls requested "good food", they said they were tired of turkey and cheese sandwiches.  Titi requested McDonalds and that made Carlos happy too.  We had banners and a cake waiting at home and a happy dad waiting for his little girl.

Mexico's Trip December 2011

December 2011

GuatFest 2011 at Nick Hotel

Mario and Tere's 25th wedding anniversary and wedding

Wedding Anniversary

Don and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary in Orlando.  We stayed at the BoardWalk and this time we were lucky and got a room on the boardwalk.  It was so nice to see all the activity, the water and even some fireworks.

Summer 2011

A new school year!

Today was Carlos' first day in middle school!  He was very nervous during the weekend but he slept very well last night and he woke up more relaxed.  He has to wear polo shirts in any color and he chose to wear a red one.  He is wearing size Adult small and the shorts were also adult size.  He is still very skinny but she is getting taller.  It looks like he had a good day.  His bus was very late because there were too many kids in the bus coming back and they had to call for another bus to take some of the kids.  I waited for him at the clubhouse and he was very happy to see me.  It has been a long time since I have waited for them at the bus stop.

Titi was very excited to start school.  She got the same teachers Carlos had last year so she was very happy about that.  She had told them her dream was to have them as her 5th grade teachers and maybe they made it happen.  Don and I are so happy about it!  We have known them for a long time and they know our family very well.  I am sure Titi is going to have a great day and a better year!

Don's birthday

This year, Don's birthday was on Easter Sunday.  Since I do not really celebrate Easter, I decided we should go back to Jupiter to celebrate Don's birthday there.  When we arrived at the beach we had been the year before, everything was different.  We could not see most of the rock formations and we got confused but then we realized there was high tide and the rocks were under the waves.  Titi was very dissapointed because she wanted to search for tropical fish.  She soon became interested in the things she saw on the visible rocks.  We did not stay long and we decided to go to the other park by the intercoastal.  Don and the kids went to search for fish on the water and I sat on the beach.  It was a very nice day and we enjoyed being outside.  On the way back we stopped at a Latin market and we bought some meat to cook at home.