"i tried to jump over the pillow, and then... CRASH!"

tomorrow is not only christmas day, it's not only our anniversary (six years!), it is also noah's birthday! remember how excited you got for christmas as a little kid? and remember how you could barely stand the anticipation of your birthday? and your parents' anniversary? okay, we all know we didn't really care about that. . . . but put together christmas and your birthday and it's almost too much to take for a little guy.

so today we were all relieved to be able to say that finally it is all happening in one day, yes, tomorrow. we asked noah what he wanted to do on his last day of being three yrs. old and the next thing we knew the decision had been made for us and we were on our way to spend the morning at the emergency room. poor little guy! here is the story according to noah:


i fell. i tripped over a pillow and then i was crying. then i didn't want anyone to touch me. and then i got a cast. i went to the emergency room in the hopsital (sic). dada brought kanga for me. i have boots. i look a little bit sad. i didn't want to go the doctor.














they took an x-ray on the computer. i got a line on my elbow. lines mean you have to get a cast on.


















i wanted a hot blue cast. and i got one. they gave me a purple popsicle.












luke's happy. he loves his popsicle.












this is the soldier set i opened early cause i was really good. i don't like my cast for three days.












not the best way to celebrate christmas eve and the day before your birthday, but at least he got to open a present early. they said he will probably only be in the cast for three weeks, but even 'three days' sounds like forever to a kid. noah was so brave through it all and we are very proud of our newly four years old boy!

thank you nap time

just a little shout out for the kids' afternoon naps. oh how i love you and need you each and every day...

it's finally here!

i know i don't speak for the majority of people, but i have to say it--i love winter!! i actually like being cold, in fact i prefer it to being hot. to me it is easier to bundle up and go inside to warm up than it is to try to beat the heat and sweat of summer. and how cute are bundled up little kids who lumber around like miniature snow monsters in all their layers? just like the brother in "a christmas story."

who doesn't love a frothy mug of hot chocolate--extra strong!? cozy sweaters, hats, gloves, scarves and my new super long down coat i got for a steal at filene's basement...ahhh. and finally, there is the best part of winter...the SNOW! i think i was more excited than the boys--and definitely more excited than mark--this morning when i pulled up the shade and unveiled the first falling snow of the season. yipee!

everybody shaves...their legs???

luke is the master of getting into things, anything, and everything. he is the poster child for 'child proofing." the other day he got into my cosmetic bag and pulled out a razor--with the guard on the blade thankfully--and this is the first thing he did with it...without hesitation. it cracks me up!

thanksgiving photos

this is the thanksgiving parade in plymouth, mass. home of the mayflower, plymouth rock and the very first thanksgiving feast. noah kept referring to our dinner as a 'feast' which gave me great pleasure. :)

it was one of the colder days of my life, but still fun. noah loved all the soldiers marching, luke liked the hot chocolate. after this day i was inspired to buy a long down coat this weekend to prepare myself for winter--three years in california has destroyed my tolerance to cold.

our thanksgiving decorations. :)

one of mark's friends from byu is here at dental school, so we had aaron, dorothy and brand new baby cormac over to celebrate thanksgiving. they were good sports wearing the pilgrim and indian hats too. :) happy after-thanksgiving to everyone!

apartment living

"A Tokyo court has ordered the father of a toddler to pay 360,000 yen in compensation to a neighbor after it ruled that the infant’s loud footsteps constituted noise pollution.
“The footsteps surpassed tolerable limits,” Yasushi Nakamura, judge at the Tokyo District Court, said in handing down the ruling."

so yesterday my downstairs neighbor came by for a little visit about the pitter patter of our little feet. i have been expecting this moment since we moved in and am a little surprised it took four months. he was very nice and asked if we could keep the noise down in the early morning and evenings. i apologized and said i would try to do better. so this morning when the boys woke up at 5:50 am i tried to keep them quiet, but it is next to impossible. noah would probably listen and comply if he didn't see luke defying every quiet rule--running, dropping toys, throwing, talking LOUD, etc.. i don't think luke even walks at all anymore--he runs everywhere on our hardwood floors. the energetic little guy is 19 months old for goodness sakes, i can't reason with him. i feel bad for our neighbor but what do i do? i love city living, but moments like these make walls and floors and ceilings we don't share with anyone else sound pretty good...

everybody poops

we just don't usually do it in the bathtub, while our brother is in there too. what is up with poop and motherhood? i have more hands-on--unfortunately--experiences with poop than many other things in my life. today i was giving the boys a bath before noah went to preschool because luke had peed--another nemesis--through his pajamas. they had just lined up all the dinosaurs and sea creatures on the side of the tub--thank goodness, less to clean--when i turned around and saw the look on luke's face. you have all seen that look. before i could ask him if he was about to... i saw the tell tale signs floating behind him. yuk! you just have to laugh at those moments because it is too gross to actually think about what you are doing while cleaning it up and trying to keep luke from playing with it. aren't you glad i didn't add a picture to this post? please feel free to share your favorite parenting poop story so i don't feel alone... :)

halloween weekend

before the candy--the smiles came later. :) what a bizarre holiday, i still don't really get why we do it. i just know the kids look cute in costumes and it gives us an excuse to eat candy!mark took the kids on a walk to the JFK birthplace right here in brookline. the home of his famous accent. i do enjoy a true bostonian accent, it's the only place where you could spell car "cah" on a sign and get away with it.

this happened to poor little luke. a trip to the emergency room and a quick rotation and pull had his elbow back in line and he was using his arm like nothing happened. i think kids are 70% rubber--thank goodness.

autumn visitors!

new england in the fall really is something

else. the leaves are truly spectacular. i'm just so darn excited to have seasons again after living in perpetually pleasant southern california that autumn is bringing out the kid in me. i like to play in the leaves, put on jackets and hats, and breathe in that chilly leafy air. we have enjoyed the visits of some of our favorite people the last couple of weeks so i'll throw up some pictures of fall splendor and mark's mom bert (aka abuelita or 'wita') and my sister kari and her son tanner. we love visitors so come and see us!

the boys and a old cannon in york, maine

kari got some punishment in front of the 18th century jail

with wita at the cape neddick lighthouse

one of my new favorite spots: the public gardens in boston

Lamenting Laundry

Remember when you were a kid and clean clothes magically appeared in your closet and drawers? I so long for those days... I despise laundry. I loathe all aspects of it minus the having clean clothing to wear. Our apt. does not have a washer or dryer in the unit. I would love it if it did, but I can live without as long as it's in the building. Sadly, our building does not have a washer or dryer either. The 'laundry room' advertised with this apt. is actually down the street, around the corner and through the parking lot three buildings away. Then you have to go down a steep flight of wooden stairs to the damp basement. Add to this two children (one 18 month old who is officially faster than me--really) and two huge overflowing bags of laundry and it becomes even more 'inconvenient.'

I have also tried loading the stroller with the laundry and walking the kids down the street the opposite way and around the corner and down the block to the laundry mat where I can do it all in the super mega washers of doom (one machine equals four regular loads!!!). But then I get to deal with bored kids who play crash with the rolling baskets, beg nonstop for food, climb in dryers and cause other havoc. And I thought washing my clothes by hand with a bar of blue soap in Venezuela was hard? Sometimes it just feels good to complain a little...or a lot. :) So my new wish is for this portable ventless washer/dryer combo that hooks up to the kitchen sink. It might even actually fit into the small space between the counter and the kitchen table where our trash can now resides. And, yes, I am officially slow (see above) and old as I wish for appliances instead of cool trips or a cute sweater. What do you do?

Luke is 18 months old...TANTRUMS!

I guess I lucked out with Noah because he really never threw tantrums--at all. Don't worry though, Luke has become quite an expert in these last couple of weeks and had by far his best performance today--in public of course--while we were at Panera Bread.

I don't know why I did it, what was I thinking cutting his grilled cheese sandwich into bite sized pieces? If I could only go back... He had shoved one entire half in his mouth and kept gagging it out because he couldn't chew it, so I thought I was being helpful, even considerate. But no, that was the worst possible thing I could have done. The moment he saw what I had dared to do to HIS sandwich it was all over!

There was no taking him outside as we were already in the outdoor seating area. The urban street location left me with no parking lot to run to. I stepped onto the small sidewalk area and let him writhe around on the concrete as people passed by but not even the noise or buses could distract him. We had barely begun eating of course, so I had to try to pack up the food while trying to figure out what would help Luke stop freaking out and fight to strap his tantruming body into the stroller. So much for a nice relaxing lunch. People were very nice about it either offering support, stories of their own children or at least trying to pretend to ignore us instead of giving me the "what is wrong with your parenting skills" look. I thank you all for that small kindness.

I know it happens to everyone--so they say--but, it doesn't do much to make me feel better in the moment. That five minutes felt like five DAYS! By the end of it all we were both crying and sweaty and poor Noah was a scarred witness to the terror. Watching this video at least helps me remember to laugh at the absurdity of tantrums...

Debate Date

For my birthday date night, Mark and I went to dinner and watched the presidential debate--we are so old! It made think of the placemat Noah used to have that had drawings of all the U.S. presidents. One day it just so happened that he was using his placemat and I had the newspaper where there was a perfect sized drawing of Barack Obama--not a cartoon mind you, he was looking very presidential. So we cut it out and taped it on the placemat right next to our current president--who shall remain nameless. We loved it! Sadly we left that placemat in California, but we know it is just a matter of time before Obama is in the White House and on placemats everywhere. Can we just get this election thing over with? :)

Dunkin' Donuts

Who doesn't love a doughnut? Noah loves the chocolate cake w/chocolate frosting, Mark loves rainbow sprinkles, I always go for the chocolate bar. We have recently started letting Luke have the sweet stuff because we can't hide it from him anymore so he will eat anything. But how often can you really eat them? I could probably do a few days in a row, but after that I think even I would crave some grape nuts or roughage of some type. For some reason the doughnut market has been fascinating me for the last few years. In Southern California there were independent doughnut shops in EVERY strip mall/shopping center. I thought, "how can there be so many doughnut shops?" "Is there really that much demand?" Now we are in Boston, the Mecca for Dunkin' Donuts lovers. There are literally 13 Dunkin' Donut shops within ONE mile of our apartment. I can walk to THIRTEEN different stores. Whaaaat? Who is eating all these donuts????? It makes me want to brush my teeth even thinking about it...

How hard can it be?

Apparently pretty hard. I started this blog two and a half years ago. Previously it had three posts. The longest post with the most pictures was written by Mark. I also never managed to give the link to anyone. Oops. So here goes nothing... again.

We are here in Boston--the fifth city we have moved to in our six years of marriage--and I'm inspired by my new surroundings to change it up a little. I'm also feeling the need to think and discuss things beyond pee and poop, quesadillas, star wars guys, and sticks (Noah and Luke's new favorite toys--which by the way works out well for us on our student budget). Mark is in class or studying until late and it is just me and the boys all day, so I need some adult conversation, even if it is just with myself on this blog! :)

A New Year: 2007

The first few months of 2007 have hit us with illness and trial, but now we're back! Better than ever...=).

Mark was hit, first, with a muscle-attacking influenza and, second, Ramsey Hunt Syndrome, which paralyzed half his face and gave him vertigo which made him feel like an Irish man on the night of St. Patty's Day. But, rest, medication, and lots of love from Tracy and Noah and friends and family have helped him recuperate and now he's nearly 100% back to normal, even though Mark was never "normal" in the first place...=).

Tracy, meanwhile, has been the stalwart of the family. She not only took care of Noah, her sick husband, and her baby in utero, but also took over the building managing responsbilities. She rented apartments, saved locked-out widows, protected tenants from Noah-like floods, braved yawping New Yorkers and angry Indians, managed the delusions of well-meaning geriatrics, and all the while maintaining her sanity. She is the rock of our family, and I know Jesus better because I know my wife.

Noah, on the other hand, is a typical two year-old, which unfortunately means he has PMS-like bouts of anger, temper, frustration, and self-imposed isolation (He places himself in time-out when he gets too angry: "I need timeout," he shares). But, he's such a joy when he curls up to his daddy on the couch and brings him book after book to read to him or watches some NBA action with him. Or, when he sits on the counter and "helps" his mommy cook dinner and measure just the right amount of ingredients. He loves his little brother already and hugs Tracy's belly, whispering "I love you's" and "See you soon's" to her popped-out belly button.

Our next little one is coming at the end of March and we're more than excited; Noah will have a playmate and someone with whom to collude his impish mischief. The baby is getting bigger every day and Tracy wears matriarchy like a bejeweled crown. I love the mother of my children and am so lucky to have found a partner in this crazy life journey.

Thank you for all your support and love. We loved Vegas for Christmas and Noah especially loved his new bike. and dressing up in his new suit, "just like Daddy." Thank you Wita and Pete and Uncle Petey for being such great hosts during a challenging time for Mom.

From L.A. With Love, from the Barrionuevo's. We'll be back soon with more adventures from a new neighborhood..=)

technology

so... the time has come. i am finally diving into the digital age--kind of. i still don't--and probably never will--own an ipod or blackberry or whatever may be the gadget of the moment. i do have a cell phone...but i don't use it very well. nice track record, huh? so begins my attempt at staying connected a little better. here are some recent glimpses of life in our neighborhood. :)

glimpses of noah

here's noah on the ginormous love sac mark talked me into buying. it takes up half of our apartment--literally!
i just loved finding noah in this position the other night. apparently he likes to sleep on his knees with his bum in the air and his head and shoulders twisted to the side. i don't know about you, but i would be feeling that in the morning!

not one of his happier moments. maybe he's upset about his hair.