First Successful Sleepover

So Alexandra loves the idea of a sleepover but has never really been able to do it. Whether it is at our house or somewhere else she always gets nervous. Maybe she is too young or maybe she just likes her space but either way last night was different. On our way back from Cocoa Beach Alexandra asked to play with Alivia.  They have become great friends over the years. After a quick swim we grabbed all her stuff and off to try a sleepover at our house. A few bumps but we made it thru the night!  An adventure worth repeating for sure. 

A 5k Memory

We all know that Mommy is not athletic, but I was determined to do this 5k with Alexandra. When I heard the Color Vibe run was coming to Jacksonville I knew we would have tons of fun. Alexandra and I did "train" but it was hot and she was not too interested in it all. That morning we got up and headed downtown. There was music blasting and powder color was flying everywhere. Alexandra and I quickly realized this was going to be tons of fun. We waited our turn to cross the starting line with Anthony and Daddy cheering us on. We completed the 5K and had a blast at the dance party afterwards. Might be a new tradition we just created.

Time to Catch Up

If you are wondering where I have been, consider this. I am a wife, mother of two, work full time and I never have a free moment. I told myself I wanted to keep this blog going into 2011, keep people up to date on our life. Well, here we are - mid year and I have not posted anything. I am going to take some time and recreate history. Stand by as the last 6 months gets recreated.

Happy Birthday Alexandra

I can not believe it, my little girl turns 5 today. It seems like just yesterday when we packed our bags to go to the hospital and have her. She has turned out to be a great little girl so far, don't get me wrong - challenging at times - but a great kid. Today was low key, school during the day, swim lessons in the afternoon and then dinner at home. Daddy got Alexandra a dozen hot pink roses and a cupcake - her dreams have come true!

Is that an Ear?

Well we really can not go a weekend without having some excitement in our lives. This weekend would not be any different. On Sunday, Daddy, Alexandra and Anthony all worked in the front yard. Alexandra came inside to get me and soon after that Anthony walked in as well. From across the room, I noticed he looked really red, but as he got closer - I noticed something was wrong with his ear. He was hitting and pulling at it, but only when he stood right in front of me did I realize it was actually twice the normal size.

Of course, Mommy panicked and we tried to take him to the emergency clinic. Luckily for us, they would not take him and before we rushed to the ER, we decided to give the Benadryl a few moments to kick in. Within an hour, the ear was starting to go down in swelling and return to a normal color. By the next day, Anthony was back to normal.

This whole episode might have only cost Anthony a few hours of his life, but I think I aged about 5 years from the stress. Parenthood can be highly overrated at times.

The Royal Wedding

So this is the day that we have all been preparing for. Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Jo are getting married and we could not be more excited. It has been a lot of work and energy for us to be in this wedding since we live in Jacksonville and the event is taking place in Miami - but well worth it all We spent Friday night at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables. During the day on Saturday the girls got their hair and makeup done on site while the boys got ready together. We had some stress, a few things went wrong but at the end of the day, the most important thing is that they got married!

Everyone looked beautiful and the place looked amazing. The reception was a lot of fun - of course - and it went late into the evening. Oma and Aunt Daniela came as well with Hailey, so we called it a night a little early because of the kids. We are looking forward to the years to come, celebrating family and good times with Mr and Mrs Sestito.

Goodbye Old Pal

Today was by far the hardest day of our marriage and lift together so far. We had to make the decision to put our first dog, Maverick, to sleep. We found out last Saturday that Maverick had developed lymph cancer. I took him in for what we thought was his routine annual shots and they discovered the "lumps". After a round of blood work and an attempt at some steroid pills that did not help, we made the right decision for him, and us. Daddy and I took Maverick in, and then had a drink in his honor. We will never have another dog like Maverick - he was the best! Rest in peace buddy, you are always in our hearts.

He Talks!

Although, we seem to have lost the secret decoder ring. Anthony has recently started "talking" - if we can really call it that. We are still having a hard time understanding exactly what he is saying, but I can say this for sure - he seems to know exactly what it is he is trying to communicate. Some words are as clear as day - my favorite saying "I love you Mommies" - he has more than one? He has also mastered the "open this please" and "all done" or the ever popular "more please." If you don't understand him and ask him to repeat it - it is the exact same "verbiage" as the first go around - so soon, he should be up to understandable full sentences.

Other popular words currently used are:

Hailey, Hey Dude, Holy Moly, Good Boy, I see you, I got you, drink, water, huggie, good nite, I love you.

Turkey Day

Let us get back in the car - AGAIN - and drive to Cocoa Beach for Thanksgiving. This was our first holiday with the extended family from Germany, and Mommy was really excited about it. We all pitched in, it was a little crowded around the house and with three kids, chaos quickly arose. We took the kids to the beach for a little while, can you believe it was actually over 80 degrees in the end of November?

The turkey turned out perfect, one of the best ones yet. We all ate and enjoyed ourselves. Thursday late eveneing, Aunt Daniela dragged me out for Black Friday shopping, our new tradition. We did not get a lot of great deals, but it was great sister bonding time - and good people watching. On Saturday, we went to the annual Art Show - one of Daddy's favorite things to do in Cocoa Beach.

Another Girls Weekend

We went to Ft Myers, just us girls, to visit and enjoy a weekend away. Alexandra and Hailey enjoyed playing together and we all had a great time. Tante Heidi and Onkel Dieter happened to be visiting from Germany, so they also came to Ft Myers with Oma. During the day, we played at parks and shopped. Another great weekend with the family!

New York City Rockets

Alexandra and I went down to Ft Myers to visit with Aunt Daniela, Hailey, Oma, Tante Heidi and Onkel Dieter for a long weekend. Aunt Daniela had gotten free tickets to see the New York City Rockets Christmas Special so the girls are in for a real treat. The show was on Saturday, but Alexandra was so excited she asked about it constantly.

When we got to the show, there was so much for them to see before we even got into the theater. They had such a great time and both loved all the "dancing Santa's."

What is 26.2 miles between friends?

He did it! After months of training, Robert completed his first Marathon - in NY! What a great place to be. The crowds where unbelievable, I have never seen this many people in one place. Robert left the hotel around 5:45am to go wait in line for his starting time, which was not until 10:15am. It was nice and cold, so he was very bundled up.

Since we had some time to kill, I went to NJ with Stephanie, Jo, his sister and Izzy to The Cake Boss. The place was completely packed but I got Robert and congratulations cake to enjoy after the run.

We made our way back towards the finish line and I was so nervous I was going to miss him. I kept getting text messages stating when he crossed different marker points and it was getting late. With thousands of people separating us from the finish line, I knew I had missed him. I decided to climb up this rocky area to get a picture of the run, it was right around mile marker 26. I looked over and there he was. I could not believe it. Nathan and I started screaming and Robert looked over. That was a great feeling.

Robert finished the race just under 5 hours, at 11 minute 18 second miles. What an accomplishment. He has now decided to run multiple marathons and is signing up for the Disney one in January. I guess there are worse habits to have.

Happy Halloween

It is that time of year again, and the kids are looking forward to the candy. We went trick or treating at Gamma's house this year. Our friends Rob and Melanie joined us. Alexandra was dressed up as a ladybug and Anthony was a very scary Pirate! He was too cute and loved walking up to the doors with Alexandra. After a few houses, Anthony was getting tired but not Alexandra. She walked up to each house, "trick or treat" and made sure to grab extra "for her baby brother who was too tired to walk." We had a great time!

Vocabulary Expands

Anthony has mastered a lot of new words over the past few weeks. Just to list a few:

- Yellow, "Hello", Oma, Alexandra (not that clear yet), Outside, Sit Down, Bye, Nose

He is turning out to be just as much of a talker as Alexandra. He points and says thing constantly now. He loves walking through the house and pointing to the pictures. I guess it is true that boys just talk a little later in life. Anthony is very adventurous. He loves to climb on things, follows Alexandra everywhere and will try to do just about anything she does. I find myself always saying "Alexandra - does that set a good example?"

First Day of VPK

Today was Alexandra's first day of VPK. Where has the time gone, I can not believe she is so big! She was not overly excited, to her it is just another day at "school" since she is doing VPK at daycare. Of course, for Mommy it symbolized so much more than that. My little Angel was growing up - way too fast. She got dressed with minimal stress in the morning and was off.

Daddy dropped her off and I picked her up. When I got to the daycare, Ms Marie (her old teacher) told me that "I have a very dramatic daughter." Please, tell me something I don't already know. She was telling me that Alexandra gave everything away by her facial expressions - hopefully this holds true for years to come because right now - she is horrible at lying.

We got home and worked on our first "homework project." She had to decorate a star with a picture of her family and color it in. This was a family project - and she kept telling us "You have to work on this with your children." I think she is going to be a teacher, or instructor of some sort - she is very bossy.

Go Germany

Although we did not make it into the finals - we still love to watch the German's play soccer. Daddy and Anthony watched the game last Saturday. Anthony even showed his support by wearing his Deutschland Fever T-shirt!

Swing Set Adventures

So we bought a swing set for the kids and Daddy agreed to put it together. Since Alexandra was with Gamma over the holiday weekend, it was the perfect opportunity to get started. Okay, so first off, it came in 4 huge boxes. I was responsible for organizing the steps - that was a mission. It took me over an hour to lay out the wood for steps 1 through 10 - there are a total of 48 steps. We started to understand why everyone wanted so much money to assemble this thing.

After a few hours, we were starting to make some serious progress.

The day was coming to an end and Daddy was exhausted. See I had the easy job - I was inside most of the day taking care of Anthony. We decided to regroup and work on it a little more on Monday. The morning sun brought a new wave of energy. Daddy finished a lot more today! Hopefully by next weekend we will be playing on this thing - or at least the kids since it has a weight limit. Alexandra came home and was very excited to see the progress.

Clean Bill of Health

Alexandra's appointment at the urologist went great. Turns out she only is a 2 out of 5 so for now, no surgery or medication is required. We are going to change her diet a little and help remind her to empty her bladder more frequently and hope for the best.

The Manager

Daddy got promoted to Benefits Manager today. We are so proud of him. He has worked for MPS Group/Adecco for over 13 years and has been through many different managers. He has earned this promotion over and over again, and they have finally recognized him. We love the Dada

A Father's Day to Remember

Happy Father's Day - I think. The morning started out great, Gamma had the kids and Daddy and I went to go have breakfast at Metro Diner. The wait was long but we enjoyed ourselves. After breakfast we headed to Gamma's to pick up the munchkins. We had plans of going in the pool and just relaxing at home. Of course, the kids were very excited to see us. Anthony was walking through the house and tripped on his own two feet and hit his lip on the floor - his first fat lip! It was instantly bruised and puffy.

It only gets worse. We got home, got changed and went in the pool. Alexandra has been doing great at swim lessons so she was so excited to show off her new moves. Swimming back and forth in the pool and all the way to the deep end. While in the deep end, she was showing me how she can put her whole head under water while she was sitting on the swim out ledge. I told her to be careful because if she hit her head on the step, we would be in big trouble.

We swam back to the sallow end and I had my back to her for just a second while she was on the steps. I heard her bobbing in the water and just as I turned around, I saw her go to slam her head under the water - but that dang step got in the way. She popped her head back up, and had a total look of shock on her face. I asked her if she was okay, she said she hit her chin and instantly started crying. I noticed a small amount of blood so we got out of the pool, got a towel and sat down and applied some pressure. At this point - she was totally hysterical. I went in to get ice and when I came back out, told her to tilt her head back so I could see. I almost passed out - she had a huge gash in her chin.

We headed up to the Urgent Care Center for stitches, but turns out they do not do them on children on the face - so off to the ER we went. After waiting for 3 hours, we got back and they were able to use Dermobond "the glue" to but it back together. Alexandra was very brave and did not cry at all. The doctor's were very impressed with her - and Mommy was very proud!

Then the angel and I went to McDonald's for a "sandwich" and ice cream.