Hello 2010!

I cannot believe it's January already! (Okay, so I started this the beginning of January and am now finishing it near the end, so I guess I should say I cannot believe January's almost over already!) I did so little blogging last year, and I'm hoping to change that this year. There's so much that I just didn't blog about, so there's lots of catching up to do! The problem is, I have no idea where to begin! I guess I'll start with just a basic update, then go back and cover the events of last year that I missed. Here we go, onto an update on the kids:

The Beaner

I still find it very hard to accept that he is 8 years old already. I won't lie, age 8 has been met with some challenges; I don't think they are unusual for his age, but they are frustrating nonetheless! You know, back talk, testing, not listening, and a good share of potty mouth! No, I don't mean swearing, he definitely knows better than that. I mean, some days it seems like every other word out of his mouth has to do with boogers, butts, or armpits, and is most often followed by fits of uncontrollable laughter; he just doesn't know when to stop! Anyways, it has been trying. This is not to say we don't have our good days when he is sweet to his sister and plays with her for hours; or gets a real kick out of how much Cooper's eyes follow him around the room and how he gets the biggest smiles out of him when he gets down on his level and talks to him. All in all, he really is a good kid and I think we are just going through a testing phase at the moment. He does well in school, and is respectful to all other adults so I guess I have to be thankful he keeps the difficult behavior at home! His teacher tells us that he is great at school, and that he is one of the kids in the class that she goes to if she needs helpers, so that makes me proud! Anyways, his current interests are reading (even if his favorite is the Captain Underpants series), art (he's started to do some really great drawings!), and using his various building toys (legos, train tracks, dominoes, marble tracks, lincoln logs) to build large intertwining structures; he will spend hours working on them while listening to music on cable's "kidz only" music station. He's still taking piano lessons, and seems to enjoy it most of the time. We also gave him as a Christmas gift, a few karate classes to try it out, so we'll be doing that in the near future. We're hoping it can teach him some self control!

La Princesa Liliana:

What can I say about our little 2 1/2 year old ball of fire? She has about a million personalities, I swear. One moment she can be so very sweet to you, and the next she is literally growling at you! Look at the above picture, she refused to smile for the camera, the picture oozes her attitude! She's pure drama for sure, and we are never short on giggles when she's around. Her current loves are tutu's, and other dress ups which her Mimi has made sure she has a steady supply of, but she'll get down on the ground and push cars around with the boys any time. She'll get down and dirty in the mud, and the next minute be whining that she needs a wipe to wash up. She is often seen trucking around the house in a tutu and mismatched rain boots toting around 3 or 4 bags filled with random stuff. She is intensely independent, and has for at least 6 months now completely dressed herself from shirt to tights and shoes (seriously, I remember still putting Ian's shoes on when he was 4!). Remember when she used to wear shoes around the house on her hands? Well the obsession has not passed and we can't be out of bed for more than 10 minutes before the feet have to be dressed. She is a major trouble seeker and will wait until I'm busy feeding Cooper to find something to get into. Her favorite is when I leave the gate open so she can get into the bathroom (did I mention she can open doors now?); and the gate is no longer enough to keep her from going upstairs, she slips through the railings on the side of the staircase. I'm telling you, she's a total monkey! She loves going through tubs of wipes at a time changing her baby's diapers, she's gotten into my makeup and completely painted her body from the waist down with lipstick, and we've had several incidents where she decides to change her own poopy diapers (most of the time during nap time, arrrgh!). She definitely keeps us on our toes! But at the end of the day, she's a real sweetheart. She loves her brothers so completely, constantly tackling Ian for hugs and will get down and speak sweetly to Cooper and tell him "It okay Coopa" when he's crying. She is full of "I luvs you"s for mummy, daddy and her brothers and she always keeps us smiling!

Coopie Monster

What can I say about this gushy squishy fellow? I'm smitten for sure. He is the most laid back child I have ever encountered; he really only cries when he's hungry or needs a diaper change. I remember having to carry Ian around everywhere, having to walk him around to keep him entertained (maybe it's that he has constant entertainment with his brother and sister, we're never short on activity in this house!). At night I remember having to rock Ian back to sleep after each feeding; Cooper pretty much eats and goes right back to sleep, it's crazy and I'm so spoiled! For the past week or so, he's been going to bed around 8 or 9, waking between 1 and 3 for a feeding then going back to sleep until 4-6 usually not actually getting up for the day until around 6 or 7, it's amazing (yes I'm knocking on wood)! The only problem we've been having at night is that after that first feeding he really doesn't want to go back into the cradle, he'd much rather cuddle with me in bed; but I have to admit, that's really not a problem for me! Anyways, he's just a sweetie and I wish I could keep him this way forever. But you know how it goes....they grow; and boy is he growing! I had him at the doctors a few weeks ago and he was already approaching 13 pounds! The picture above was taken at about 6 weeks and he's now 3 months old (I just took more pictures, but they are still on the camera), I can hardly believe three months have gone by already! He's a big smiler, I heard his giggle a couple weeks ago, he's started to reach for things and grab onto them, and has started to discover just how fascinating it is to have hands, often spending lots of time just staring at them. We only got a week with Ana when she was this age, and it's so nice to experience it again!

As for Greg and I, we're just flying by the seat of our pants trying to keep up with this crew. We feel like the luckiest parents on earth to have these three as our own. I would have never imagined when we started dating in high school that this is where we would be 18 years later (isn't that crazy?!). It's been an interesting road to get here, but in the end I would change nothing. Everything that we've been through has contributed to where we are, and who we have become. I feel so truly blessed.