Not ready for American Idol

As mostly every little girl I know, my girls are crazy about Frozen.  They love all the songs, and they know them all in both versions... English and Spanish.

One of the gifts they got from Santa was a microphone and they asked me to record them singing "Libre Soy" which is the Spanish version of "Let it Go"...

I'm sure they are not ready for American Idol, but they are still adorable. Gotta love Mimi's style too!

Family Day at school

Today was the family day at the girls school.  They had performances prepared for the parents to see and it was a family day different to what I am used to.  Normally it is just a bunch of games and activities and everybody is on their own, but being able to have the girls perform and THEN get into those fun activities was something I liked very much.

Mia and Mimi have been practicing classical ballet since the beginning of the school year and Mia was soooo nervous that she was shaking.  She can actually see her nervous face on the pictures. On the other hand, Mimi was extremely confident and all sassy.  Even with Mia's stage fright, they both did a beautiful job and I was wearing my "proud mamma hat".  In one of the pictures, you can see Mimi with her best friend.  It's funny how you cannot tell which one is which if you are looking at both of them from their backs... They have the same height, same weight, same hair, same skin color... even the same BIG eyes!


Gaby have been practicing Baton Twirling and she is so happy with it that I think she even dreams about it. They did a presentation (pictures below) and my heart was racing. Mimi also performed a dance and below you can see a picture of her with her dance partner while enjoying some "waltz time".


Here is also a video with part of Gaby's performance. Super fun!

Mimi's potty progress

There is no much progress on the potty as we are not pushing it... Mimi just turned 18 months old, and to push her is not our plans.. Anyway, it is soo funny all the progress that she is showing, and it really amazes me... I bet tons of other kids knew how to do that by this age, but that has not been my personal experience, so, from perspective, it is awesome...

Sadly, the camera we got doesnt have sound, so our videos from now on will be in MUTE, but you dont need words to understand what is going on here. My instructions were: Could you take the doll to go potty?

Of course, everthing came to an end cause Mia and Gaby came to take their dolls to potty, and Mimi had to take her potty chair and doll away!!!

Auntie Noe's big day!

I dont think there are many people in the world that has the privilege of having a friendship like the one I have with my friend Noelia. We have been friends since we were 1 year old (here is a picture to prove it), and we are still friends at 27 years old (I hope you all can tell which baby is who!)

In addtion to the time we have been together, we have managed to have 26 years of friendship without any struggles, except for a little misunderstanding in 6th Grade (which Im sure she hardly remebers) that lasted a couple of days. During my whole 4 years of high school and a couple of years after that, we spent mostly the whole week together, and not even with that much interaction we had a situation that we couldn’t talk or being mad at each other for more than 5 minutes. If you have that, Congratulations, because I feel honored and grateful to have it.

During the last 5 years, my life have turned around motherhood, and her life turned around her college, and even though we keep talking and communicating, being together or just hang out has been a bit difficult. Today, she accomplished something that means to me more than what she can imaging. Today, after a very hard beginning and after several years of struggling, Noelia graduated college and received her Bachelor in Architectonic Design and Decoration.

When her name was called and she walked to get her certificate, my heart was full of pride, and my heart started racing of truly happiness! I didn’t had a good view, so I had to record her from a projector, but here is a video of her while receiving her certificate..

Here is a picture of us after the ceremony…

Noelia: Im very proud of you, and I hope to be by your side while you keep succeeding in life!! Way to go!!! We love you very much!

Day at the park

For the past few Sundays, we have been going to have lunch at my mom's house. The cooking lady used to leave home on Saturday afternoons and come back Monday mornings, but now she is leaving Monday morning and coming back on Wednesdays, which means that she is at my mom's house over the weekend. She is a great cooker and we love to eat her food. Besides we love to have somebody to cook for us for a change. The girls also loves spending time at grandma's, even though, my mom's poor little dog wishes we were not there at all.

There is a park near my mom's house. It's one of the few public parks in the city, and even though they dont give it much maintenance, we go from now and then as the girls find it "beautiful" anyways. As always the girls had a blast, especially Mimi. We took a ball and Mimi was happily playing with it... Mia and Gaby had lots of fun in the swings, and even Mimi got some swinging with my mom (there are no swings for babies, so my mom had to sit her on her lap). The girls loved going after every single dog and Gaby felt in love wtih a mini Chihuahua that the owner let her hold.

Here is Mimi playing with the ball

Here is Gaby kicking at the ball (and getting in trouble with Mia)

Camila's updates....

I have been trying to convice Camila's *preschool* that she is ready to start potty trainning. She has been waking up with a dry diaper mostly every night since 4 weeks ago, and she has even slept without diapers sometimes.

She is showing she is ready in every way. I read a great article about readiness, and she complies with everything. The teacher was saying that it was too soon to start as she just have been in the school for 2 months and she needed more time to adjust... I know that is true with most kids, but Camila has showed that she is adjusted since the very beginning... She never cries, she does what she is suppose to do, she follows instructions, she says good-bye to me at the door since day four, and so on and so on.

They finally gave it a try on Wednesday and she has been peeing on the toilet in school since then. She doesnt like the big toilet at home, so I need to buy another potty seat for her as ours got lost (stolen from the old maid). Big YAAAAY to Camila for peeing 3 days in a row in school in the toilet!! Im so ready to stop diapering her!!

Yesterday, we got her ready as she was going to spent some quality time with her grandma, and I tried to get her to say a few words to record her... They are in Spanish, but Im sure you all can tell that she is *talking*.



And here is a picture of Mimi... Just because she looked too cute not to post it....

Mother's Play in Gaby's school

Gaby's school had her play for Mother's Day today. They had a gorgeous set up in the school's amphitheater. There is a long outdoor walk to get there, and the rain ruined it! They had to improvise and do the performances in the Library. The kids were disappointed, but they did a great job.

I got there 10 mintutes late, but thank God it was just starting when I got there. Gaby was so excited when she saw me and she couldnt stop laughing. She had this "embarrased laugh" and it was so cute.

I didnt took many pictures, but I did recorded the songs where Gaby participated... Here is a picture where you can see Gaby's embarrased reaction when she saw me (she was trying to hide herself with her hands... too cute)... If you cant find her she is in the front row, the second one from left to right:

They sang a song along with the first graders, and as I was a bit far you can hardly see Gaby. So, in the next song, which was only the PreK and K kids, I came a bit closer to Gaby, and here it is:

Giggles!

Mia and I were playing and she was laughing so hard that it was a crime not to get it on video.....

Of course, here is how she was 20 minutes later:

Finally walking to my eyes

One day at Mimi's school:
Lady says: "She looks so cute walking"
Me: WALKING?"
Lady: You knew she was walking, right?
Me: Nooooooooooooooooooooo
Me: but but but but... when did it....., when did it.... happened?
Lady: A few days ago

When we got home:
Me: Mimi walk for Mommy....
Me: Come on.... Walk for mommy....
Me: Ok... now, walk for mommy
(Mimi crawls)

Later that day:
Me: Mimi is walking!!
Hubby: Yes, I know....
Me: What you mean you know?
Hubby: When you went downstairs she was giving steps like crazy.... you didnt know?
Me: Helloooo? NO!

3 days later:
Lady says: Mimi is walking the whole school!!
Me: What?
Lady: Yes, she was walking today in the backyard non-stop

Later that day:
Me: Mimi walk for Mommy....
Me: Come on.... Walk for mommy....
Me: Ok... now, walk for mommy
(Mimi does one step and crawls)

A few days later:
My mom: Kudos to Mimi! How come you didnt tell me she is walking?
Me: How do you know she is walking?
My mom: Because she was just walking when you were in the kitchen...

Later that day:
Me: Mimi walk for Mommy....
Me: Come on.... Walk for mommy....
Me: Ok... now, walk for mommy
(Mimi does one step and crawls)

I was really wondering if you was going to go to college without letting me see her walking! It was like everybody say her, but ME!!!

So, today I started asking it non-stop. And nada, nada. At bedtime, after I got her pj's on (that by the way, we huge on her feet), she insisted on going to the floor. It was not comfortable to walk holding onto the bed, much less by herself, because the foot part of the PJ was huge. Anyway, I decided to try my luck again, and it happened! It finally happened to my eyes!! (Im sorry that you guys have to tilt your head....)

So, she started walking sometime while she was 10 months old, but I got to she her at 11 months old.

Birthday weekend!

We celebrated Mia's birthday the whole weekend.... We tried to do things that Mia loves, and here are some of the things we did!

We got in the pool Saturday AND Sunday:








We also went to KFC (her favorite place to eat), and she also got freedom in the play ground for the first time!!!



At night we did what we are going to do from now on for each birthday. We put the other girls to sleep and we sang happy birthday by ourselves... It's going to be a tradition to spent that time alone with the birthday girl! She felt really special!!!




And a little video (ignore my lovely singing!!)

A day in school for Mia

Last Friday, Camila wasnt really sure about what was going to happen, but yesterday, SHE KNEW. When we got to the school and realized I was leaving, she started crying. Luckily, it wasnt a "screaming bloody murder" crying as Gaby used to make... it was more like a "I want you to stay with me" crying. Just as Friday, everybody told me how happy she has spent both days, and that she stops crying a couple of minutes after I leave.

Today happened the same thing: She cried, and they said she stopped crying right away. The preschool principal, stopped by my building, and we were talking about how kids love to make us feel guilty (of course, we were just joking about it... we know it's not like that), and how they cry when the parents are there, and stop as soon as they leave. So, I sent my camera with her so she can take pictures and make videos...

I was the greatest idea ever. I must confess my heart melted when I saw the pictures and video. I have been having the feeling since a few month ago that she needed that interacion with kids her age, and away from us, but I just didnt really know how much she needed. You can SEE how happy and integrated she is already, and it's just her third day. They keep saying how she has integrated just great, and that she is acting like she belongs there. Enjoy the pictures and video just like we did!

Mia with the preschool principal

At the psicomotricity room

With the teacher's aid:

Just having fun:




With another teacher's aide:

And here is the video... There is a part where somebody calls a girl named Gabriela, and Mia looked... LOL

Dominican Heritage Month

February is the month of the Dominican Heritage. Gaby's school prepared a play from Pre-K to Fifth grade, and I invited my mom to go with us. Hubby was the DJ of the play so he was not going to be able to help me with the girls, so my mom was a lot of help.

The school has a Mini Amphitheatre, and it was during school hours, so not many parents were able to attend. But, in overall, I think it was cute, even though they just started practicing this week. The asked us to dress them with the same cloth they used for the Christmas play, and thank God the shirt was still alive.

Here is Gaby when she was leaving the house in the morning:

Here is my mom staying with the girls while I went down to record the play:

Here is the view of the amphitheatre after the kids were done....

And here is a video of the play:


At the end they were mentioning all the teachers that were involved with the play... The students were clapping at them, and when they mentioned hubby's name the clapped and cheered louder!! I was so proud of hubby... you can tell the kids love him very much.

Major milestone alert!!!!

Mimi is getting ready to walk!!!! You read right!! Mimi has been crusing for quite a bit already, going from from side to the other holding onto something, but yesterday she actually took a step!!!!!! She felt right after that, but she can last several seconds standing up without support. She is 8 and half months, but her medical adjusted age is 7 months old.




I also have been trying to get her "crawling" on video, but every time I take the camera out she freezes. For this video she actually kept "crawling" even though she was interrupted by an ANT at the beginning!! She was actually following an ant!!!

Pool Time!

We promised Gaby that we were going to let her use the pool as a reward for her good behavior from yesterday at school. I put some diapers in the washer machine and hubby was supposed to hang them in the sun. So, while the machine was washing he set up the girls outside. Gaby came upstairs to ask for the bathing suits, so I put her one, and sent the other one downstairs WITH the camera, of course. I was going to miss it, but I wanted to see pictures AND videos!! All I could hear was their laughs and I could tell that they had a great time. Mimi didn’t got in, but she was looking from her stroller, and having fun too!!

Mia was so excited when we let her in

Mimi was watching them and smiling


Mimi looking at the flowers too

Just having fun


This picture is for you guys to have an idea of my mini-backyard

Splashing in the water

Eating some fruit loops in the tent

Gaby was freezing at the end!

Hubby got the hang the diapers!!

Now some videos…

Mimi reaching for some Froot Loops in her stroller

Gaby freezing... Mia kicking.... And Gaby saying Cheese to the camera (cause she thought hubby was just taking a picture).

Mimi stealing the camera!! Hubby couldn’t take it away for a bit…