The Boardwalk - Sophia-style

We've been trying to take advantage of the February wedding-free weekends. They don't happen often! This past weekend we took a walk on the Malecon, and I swear I thought I took some photos of Pablo and I as well, but now that I look at them, Sophia seems to be the star in every one. Hmmm... could it be that she is cuter than us? So, here you go - a walk on the Malecon - Sophia-style.

Home Improvements

I never realized that maintaining a home in good shape was a full time job. Now I know.

Remember two days ago when our bathroom had a dirt floor?

Well, my husband has literally been burning the midnight oil to finish this . . . and soon! Let's just put it this way, we don't have a bathtub in our main bathroom and Sophia, well, she doesn't fit in the sink anymore! Haha! This is what it looks like today! And our tile arrived!


And . . . due to another rainy day in Vallarta (in March!?!?!?! What the heck!!?!?!), we actually got our new piece of framed art hung as well! Gosh I love red. (Don't mind the rest of the incredibly dusty house - what do you expect in a construction zone in which all materials are brought up through the main entrance?)

Question of the Day:

Is it always true that things get worse before they get better?

Ponder that for a moment.

Answer: In the case of my house and all-that-is-Mexican-construction, the answer is a clear and resounding "YES." Case in point, my bathroom. Which just a couple weeks ago was unfinished but an unfinished room. Today, my bathroom is not a room but more of a cave in the corner of my house. A very scary, dusty OH-SO-DUSTY cave.

In a While

This morning was a little different around our house! We got up 1/2 an hour earlier, played a little less and were rushed a little more! (This is going to take some practice!) Today is Sophia's first day at Daycare, known to her as School-with-lots-of-new-friends! She picked out her turtle shirt to wear on her first day and smiled big for the camera as she played this morning before we headed off.


I love the daycare. It is cute and bright and colorful and energetic and full of happy, smiling kids - which I'm taking as a good sign. Yes, we were the only two-parent drop off this morning; everyone else just pushed their kids through the door, smiled, waved and were off to work. We lingered. Took pictures. Watched her play. Oh, did I mention she took off immediately, running to play with her teacher Miriam and give the kids hugs? Not even a glance backward.




When it was time for us to go, we blew her a kiss and said, "Bye Soph! We'll be back in a while! Have fun!" And she responded, "In a while!"

So we've got an early start to our work day but will most likely be the first parents there at 2pm waiting to pick her up, and yes, we will most likely BOTH go to pick her up. Come on . . . it's the first day!

I'm 1 3/4 years old!

We did a similar post last year on this same date. So I thought we'd update!

This was me 1 and 3/4 years ago.


This was me last February 12th.


And this is me today!



I just keep growing!

On Monday, Sophia starts "school." We are enrolling her in an early-stimulation style day care from 8:30 - 2 pm three days a week! She is super excited every time we tell her she is going to make new friends; she claps her hands and shouts "amigos, amigos, amigos!" So I guess that means it is time. We have to pick up "school supplies" on Sunday - we've got a long list!

Big Girl Sick

This week brought a pretty rough day for Sophia - sick with a temperature and bad cold. And while I felt really badly for her, she was just too cute to resist. It was the first time she was sick as a "big girl." At 21 months, she laid on the couch with her sippy water, her favorite friend Pablo and her blanket and watched Backyardigans while sniffling.


The good news is that it was a 24-hour bug and she is back to her rambunctious self.

And, in other news, we finally picked out tile for our master bathroom (which has been plain cement and not functional for two years now!) The goal is to get the bathroom up and running by the Grandparents Crawford visit in early March!

Tim Mahoo?

Soo... a couple weeks ago, Michelle's eyes lit up and her cheeks glowed as she commented to me that a local Twin Cities musician was coming to Puerto Vallarta to play at one of the night clubs. I thought to myself, "Tim Mahoo-who?" But she seemed in utter crush of this mysterious music man, so I said to myself again, "Hmmm ... after free babysitting, Soph's free haircut, enchiladas upon demand and so many other special things she does for us, who am I to deny her the joy of going to sing and dance to the magical musicals of Tony Mahoney (or whatever his name is)." So we went. First to dinner at Pipi's where a giant margarita made even me excited about this late-night musical entertainment (yes, any live music that requires I be out of bed at 11 pm is really just silly!)


Or so I thought. We saw Tim Mahoney (apparently not Tim Mahoo-who? nor Tony Mahoney - excuuuuuse me!) sing a few songs ...



... then danced the night away to Cities musician GB Leighton as well!


Home at 2:30 am (after convincing Michelle it was absolutely time to go home!) Seriously, unless I'm working a wedding or answering late-night emails, I haven't seen 2:30 roll around in ages!

A Quick Trim

Near the end of January, Sophia got her first hair trim by Michelle! Just a little snip here and there to take care of that unruly mess on the top of her pretty head! Hee hee!



It's very handy having a cousin who grew up in a salon!

Birthday #2 and #3

My birthday came and went without much fanfare (just the way I like it!) Seriously, I don't really like celebrating birthdays; I don't feel old or hate telling people my age, I guess I just like to hang out with my family and relax - aaah, relax . . .something that we don't get to do on non-birthday days!!! This year my birthday was the day after a wedding, so in addition to being a bit older and decrepit, I was also exhausted! So we literally laid around the house, I blew out candles on a cupcake, played with Soph (i.e. stuck stickers all over our faces) and just chilled (watching Twilight, of course).



We made up for my not-so-exciting day with over-the-top-excitement for Pablo's birthday less than a week later! We took a quick weekend tour around the world . . . first stopping in New York, seeing the sights and chomping on an awesome deli sandwich . . .



Then it was off to Venice for a walk along the canals and through St. Mark's Plaza and to listen to the yodeling of the gondola singers.





Then we raced off to Paris where we feasted on crepes and checked out some very speedy cars (and I mean Pablo really checked out the cars!)





Alright, so we weren't so much jet-setting as we were wandering the hotels in Vegas, but did I have you going for a moment at least? (Until you saw the show banners hanging off the Venetian buildings? Haha!)

We made our way over to the Bellagio where I was fascinated with the lobby ceiling art! It was literally one of the prettiest things I've ever seen!



We spent the early evening listening to the dueling pianos - sooo much fun!


The night of Pablo's birthday, we went to see O by Cirque du Soleil! (It was kind of the whole point of our trip!)




After the AMAZING show inside the Bellagio theater, we wandered outside to catch the fountain performance which was actually much more stunning and romantic than I anticipated (so I only took one picture - a blurry one - and then just stood and took it all in for a couple minutes!)



The next morning, we headed home to spend Sunday afternoon with Sophia! Happy Birthday to Us (and thanks Chelle for watching Soph so we could jet-set! Haha!)

Birthday #1

January brings many birthdays for our group - Michelle on the 6th, me on the 11th and Pablo on the 16th - each exactly 5 days apart! Last month we celebrated Michelle's bday with a dinner with a few friends at Banana Cantina! A few pics from the celebration! Happy birthday Michelada!



This one was taken by Doryan's 7-year-old . . . hence the blur!