Our Crazy Beautiful Life

It's been awhile since I took the time to sit down and blog. We have been engrossed in the day to day since the start of the school year. The first couple of months of a new school year are always busy...and sometimes downright exhausting. We are almost 3 months into kindergarten...and my 11th year of teaching. I am thrilled to say that Luca LOVES kindergarten and he is THRIVING. I could not be more happy. He is excited and ready to go every morning, and he comes home happy each afternoon. He loves his teacher, and he has made many new friends. He is also learning so much and it has been really fun listening to him tell us all about it. He continues to amaze me every day with new things he can do or things he knows. The one challenge for me has been finding the time in the evenings to incorporate some learning at home. I love reading with Luca, and being a reading teacher myself I always want to work with him on sounding out words, reading sight words, and all of the things I know he needs to become a good reader. But I have also been teaching reading ALL DAY. And he has been focused and engaged in learning ALL DAY. And he isn't a huge fan of mommy as a teacher. And I am tired. And I just want to hang out with Luca. And Mila needs my attention too. And I have to make dinner. And clean up dinner. And do baths. And then it's bedtime before we know it. Tomorrow we have his first parent/teacher conference. Being on the other side of the table will definitely be a different experience for me. Sigh. I am sure she will have good things to say.
Ms. Mila has been talking up a storm lately. FINALLY. I was a little worried because she was taking a little longer than Luca, but now her vocabulary is exploding in English AND Spanish! She repeats everything all day long. She will see her baby doll and say "baby crying". She calls Spiderman "man"...and has also started referring to actual spiders as "man". So funny. She loves saying "bye" and "ciao" and waving/blowing kisses to everyone. She asks for her favorite "show" every morning...Mutt and Stuff. It's a kid show with actual trained dogs. Of course she would love a show about dogs. She still loves animals, especially dogs and her "Tay". She loves making animal sounds and knows many animal names. She calls her two favorite foods (peas and blueberries) "bubbles" because they are round. She also loves actual bubbles. She loves climbing on anything and everything, and she is constantly climbing into her highchair on her own...including standing on top of the tray. She will climb up and say "eat"...even though most of the time she does't really want to eat. She is a pretty picky eater like Luca was. She will eat all day with Abuelita....but it's another story at home. She loves "counting" things. She has heard Luca count and I believe she is also listening to me count backwards from 5 when Luca has been warned to do something...ha ha ha. Tonight we read a counting book and she said "5, 4, 3". She loves coloring, painting, play doh, and anything artistic. She holds a crayon perfectly, and she will sit contently for a long time just coloring. She also loves cleaning up messes and she is a great helper! Tonight she stepped on some Goldfish on the floor and was picking up the pieces and putting them into the trash. She is particular about things, and she knows where everything goes. She even cleans up after Luca. Her other favorite thing is being outside. She loves to swing, and she really loves riding around the neighborhood in her little pink car. She is Ms. Independent all the way. She refuses to ride in strollers or the Ergo anymore, and most of the time she refuses to hold anyone's hand when we are out and about. Which can be particularly challenging. Even though she is independent with some things, she is still very much a mommy's girl. And she can be super shy when she's around new people. But it's getting better, and she has stayed in the church nursery without a problem the last two weeks! Sleeping is still a struggle with her. She has never once slept through the night. And she is still nursing several times a night and sleeping in our bed for half of the night. But my plan is to really work on weaning before she turns 2...shhhhh don't tell. As much as I am thankful that I was able to exclusively nurse her for a long time and continue with extended breastfeeding...we have reached that point where I am ready to be able to comfort her in other ways, and I am SO ready to sleep like a normal human.
As for Santi and I. Well we are just working on finding balance between work, kids, home life, faith, marriage, family. This is always our challenge, and we are always in search of new ways to make the most of our time as busy working parents of two. Most weeknights by the time the kids are finally asleep...which unfortunately still takes forever....we are too exhausted to do anything but pack lunches and crash on the couch. Weekends are busy just catching up with housework, grocery shopping, meal prep, and laundry. We struggle to make time for date nights, time with our families, individual time with the kids, and just time for ourselves....time to exercise, relax, get away for a moment of peace. I know it will come. Mila won't be little for long. And Luca is already getting more independent. I am just going to try to stay in the moment and do what I can when I can. And focus on the important things. And drink lots of coffee.

Oh...and just for fun here are a couple shots from our fall family photos. Mila refused to cooperate, but we still got some sweet shots of the little stinker.