Sunday Fun

We had a really nice weekend and a great family day today. After our usual church rounds (worship and crafts for me and the girls at the Episcopal church, then Sunday School for the girls and round 2 of worship for me at the Presbyterian church), we came home for lunch and then went to the local roller rink for some roller skating. Fer got new skates for Christmas and her old skates fit Wendy perfectly, so the girls were all set to hit the rink. For some reason they had put on their skates yesterday and gotten excited about roller skating again, so off we went this afternoon. I watched the bags and the excitement while Chris strapped on a pair of skates and went around with them. Mainly he skated with Wendy while Fer stayed close to the wall, and it was so sweet to see how excited she was -- huge smiles and waves every time they passed me.

We came home and spent about an hour on schoolwork. Both girls had projects to do so we divided and conquered -- Chris spent time with Fer reviewing the American Revolution in preparation for making a Jeopardy game, and I worked with Wendy on creating a "Weeks Family Garden" bar graph of the heights of all 6 of us, dogs included. I couldn't help but find some significance in the fact that at first she was just going to include herself and the dogs, then she added Fer, and then decided it would be all of us in her graph. Both of them did a great job on their work, and Wendy even finished hers and now has no math homework for the week, yay!

We ended the day with a much-anticipated trip to the Colombian restaurant in Elizabeth. The food was so good, and the people really nice. I found myself right back in Spanish pretty easily, though the girls were too shy to try out theirs! It encouraged me to try to do a little more at home -- Fer's ELL teacher was urging us to start to do some reading or listening with the girls so they would get back some of what they have forgotten. Our trip today made me think perhaps I haven't forgotten as much as I had thought, and maybe the same is true for them.

Overall, 2 years in, it's pretty amazing how far we've come. Though we still struggle at times in ways that would probably horrify parents of more typical children (!), we also find such joy in the progress that all of us have made in becoming a family together. I'm trying to give up being impatient for Lent. Though initially that meant to me trying not to be snappish/irritable when I'm frustrated, it occurred to me today in church that I can also strive for a deeper kind of patience, one where I recognize that some things just take time to come to fruition, and I work on trusting that if we continue to be faithful, they will, as so much has already.

Another Famiversary

Today marks 2 years since we returned from Colombia as a family! Happy Famiversary to Us!! We are hoping to do our traditional celebration party a bit later in the spring (somehow February and March got away from us) but in the interim we're going to go out for Colombian food in nearby Elizabeth, NJ this Sunday -- we found a great restaurant and bakery called Mi Colombia in December and got some of the food for our Colombian Christmas lunch there. Fer is worried our Spanish won't suffice to place our order, but I'm sure we'll manage. :)

Florida 2012

We went down to Osprey, Florida for a long weekend to see Gigi and Grandad, who have rented a place down there for 3 weeks and very generously are hosting their three daughters in sequence. We had a lovely time, complete with pool, beach, Jungle Gardens in Sarasota, and, a real highlight, a trip to see Winter the dolphin (a famous dolphin who lost her tail and is an inspiration to many, as well as the star of the recent movie about her story, "A Dolphin Tale") at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium!

Jungle Gardens, with the flamingos, and Wendy assisting at the bird show:






At the beach:







Lunch by the water:




Seeing Winter at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium:







A last walk on the beach with Gigi and Grandad:



Thanks for a fabulous vacation!!

Valentine's Day

We had a lovely family celebration before breakfast on Valentine's Day -- we gave Fer and Wendy a little stuffed animal each, and exchanged cards among all family members. It was really adorable to see how excited the girls were to have us open their cards. They didn't actually choose them as shopping has been a bit too fraught recently, so I selected all cards (except the one from Chris to me, there I draw the line), and the girls chose from what I had bought. But they were just thrilled to see us open them, and were very happy with their little gift as well. School was a candy-fest, apparently, and they came home with a full bag of candy each. Sweets to the sweet!

Fabulous Parenting Moments (not)

Not my finest hour . . . I got myself totally backed into a corner the other night at dinner trying to answer a question about why some twins are identical and others not, beginning with explanation that there is an egg from the mommy in the place in her belly where the baby grows and the man's part of the baby joins the egg to start a baby. Girls were immediately curious about how the man's part of the baby GETS there, whereupon I literally burst into nervous giggles and lamely explained the basic facts, using the correct anatomical terms. A bit more lame explanation ensued in which I said that this is for when people are married, and it doesn't happen every time, but it could (wanting to ward off teen pregnancy from the "we only did it once" myth). Oh God. They were sort of horrified ("eeeeeew!"), and definitely found it extremely funny, and of course then Wendy wants to know if Papi and I do that, and as my mother pointed out I should have answered with a resounding yes, because we love each other -- instead I said I didn't want to get into my personal business, but since it is something married people do and we are married, there she has her answer. THEN she says, "But you don't have a baby!" I agreed that this is in fact the case, and she replied, "Text him! Text Papi right now and tell him to come home to make a baby! Just one, please, just one!" Oh God, times ten.

I did finally get back to the idea that some eggs split to make identical twins, and in other cases there are two eggs from the start. I could have avoided all this by explaining about IVF, I suppose, since that is how many sets of fraternal twins come to be these days! Didn't go there, though.

I'm sure there will be an opportunity in the future to add on to this stellar beginning -- hopefully next time I'll be in better shape.