packin’ up and headin’ out

A B-I-G weekend is ahead of us.  We’ve got the much-anticipated ballet recital tomorrow morning at the Knight’s Theater uptown (at 9 a.m. no less!) and afterward we are headed off to one of our favorite NC beaches for the long weekend.  I managed to snap a couple shots of Emilia ‘packing’ her stuff for the playa…

getting out her suitcase – courtesy of her tio Karl-Anders Mattas.

 

packing up baby jesus, a skippyjon jones book, pink panda, taggie, and her bathing suit.

struggling with the ‘lock’ on her suitcase – perhaps because of all the stuff she’s got in there.

Happy Weekend!

rehearsal

Emilia had her dress rehearsal and ‘professional’ ballerina pictures taken today.  It was so cute.  As I predicted, when I was in the room (ie: when the pictures started) she was all clingy and nervous and shy, so I handed her off to my friend Lauri, Betsey’s (from school) mom and said “I’m outta here!”  The second I left she was perfectly fine and posed for the group picture.  I don’t think they got a smile out of her but at least she stood there.  She had an individual picture taken as well which I’m predicting didn’t come out that great either, but what can you do. 

 

practicing their curtsies – from left – Betsey (from st. j), Caroline, Lucy, Ginna (from st. j), Elizabeth, Emilia, and Catherine – not pictured: Natalie (who was having a meltdown no amount of jellybeans/m&ms or marshmallows could cure :( love how Betsey had already ripped her hairdo out!

getting the wiggles out.

Once all the girls had their pictures taken it was time to have a run-through of their two routines with the costumes on.  Thank goodness my camera records video as well, so I was able to record both dances, just in case Emilia’s stage fright fully kicks in on Saturday.

Warning: The video is not the greatest – I’m too busy laughing at my child to pay attention that the camera is kind of all over the place.  Oops.

In this first piece the music is “Sweet Little Baby Girl” – I mean, c’mon, how were we not supposed to cry at that?  Basically their supposed to be doing all the positions and hand movements but as you can see, someone (second from right) is far too interested in doing the cha-cha-cha.  watch Ginna (the tall girl) to see what they’re actually supposed to be doing.  I swear that girl’s practically a pro.

And now… for the “Bear cha-cha-cha!”

belleza sin igual.

ballerina practice #1 and an ‘ouchies terrible’

This weekend I was finally able to get Emilia to try on her ballerina costume.  Since she had such a visceral reaction to it the last time she had it on, I thought for sure I would never get it on her again.  This time she was actually all smiles.

 

 checking out the rosette on her sash.

 

i think the purple bracelet really compliments the outfit.

Later on in the day I managed to convince Emilia to let me try doing her ballerina bun.  It’s going to be tricky and will require quite a bit of Marcus’ hair gel and some hairspray as well to get all the whispy hair on the side, but we’ll manage.

Our weekend post wouldn’t be complete without acknowledging our favorite soccer player and his potentially ‘season-ending’ injury.  Sunday morning we went to root on our Ecuadorians as they played a friendly match against a very aggressive Venezuelan team.  Sadly, Marcus and someone on the other team collided and now I’ve got a husband with an apple instead of an ankle.  Emilia was very disappointed and kept trying to insist that Papa should go ‘jugar con los senores’ (play with the other men), but no chance.  We hope he’ll be fine for his big tourney in a couple weeks.

 comforting the wounded… look at that painful grimace.

can you picture it?

Because I couldn’t actually get a picture of her in it.

This Tuesday costumes were FINALLY handed out for the Spring ballet recital.  This was, as one of the other mom’s jokingly pointed out, what we had all been ‘doing time’ for by sitting outside of class patiently since January.  I’m not too ashamed to admit that I was FAR more excited about the costume than Emilia probably (surely) was, nor am I too ashamed to admit that I got a little teary when they showed them to us (I was not the only one, whew!)

Wondering why there’s no picture of Emilia actually in the costume?  Well, she hates it.  Actually, that’s not a true statement.  As is her personality, while all the other little girls were madly tearing at their costumes wanting to get them on as quickly as possible, Emilia wanted little to do with it and frankly would have been perfectly content if it had resided in it’s little garment bag forever.  I basically had to bribe her to even try it on (the promise of a lollipop and a little peer pressure - ‘look Emilia, everyone else is doing it!’ – not my finest parenting hour but whatever).  Once she got it on she was fine but the minute Ms. Heather (the teacher) wanted to really quickly review one of their dances (the Cha-cha-cha!!) Emilia got all clingy and nervous and wouldn’t let go of me and of course wouldn’t dance.  I was planning on helping the room mom backstage with the kids but now I think I’ll back off if possible since I think having me back there will only make her more nervous and clingy.

dragging it up the stairs – nice – sure way to get it dirty before the big show.

Ironically, Emilia insisted on calling Papa when we left class to tell him she had gotten her costume and I thought for sure she’d try it on for him when he came home, but no such luck.  I’m guessing Marcus will see her in it as I’m wrestling her in to it the morning of the show. 

Now I have to figure out how to make a ballet bun in her hair.  Yikes.

varios/various

 

Some of the past week’s random-ness…

Emi’s all about setting up little ‘picnics’ in the playroom – she’ll set out a bunch of blankets and babies and then, for some reason, they all decide to ‘nap’ together.  It’s pretty hilarious.

This past Saturday was a crazy long day.  We had our friend/neighbor’s birthday party (John Carter turned 1!), followed by lunch with the Latinos (we ate at 3, naturally), followed by dinner with our friends up in Huntersville (the BFFs).  By the time we made it back home the 3 of us were absolutely exhausted but so glad we had been able to spend time with lots of different groups of friends.  Of course by the time we got home Emilia was looking pretty darn rough, but at least she started off the day looking spiffy.

Pre-John Carter’s birthday party photo shoot…

according to Marcus, Emilia looks just like me in these two pics.

John Carter’s birthday party theme was a circus.  His mom and grandma had gone to town filling the backyard with various ‘animals.’  Too cute.

Emilia insisted on taking panda with her. Here she’s walking back home from the party, party favors in hand.

pickin’

Last week our playgroup met up at Hall Family Farm for some strawberry picking fun.  It was a beautiful sunny and HOT day.  Emilia had spent a couple hours at Kyrie’s house while I was at school so I offered to take both girls to the strawberry patch.

yes, they’re wearing matching outfits.  when emi arrived at ‘yrie’s house apparently ky decided she needed to change in to her matching t-shirt.

 

emi’s basket – 3.2 pounds worth of strawberries this kid picked (3.0 pounds of which were green, but whatever!) 

ky showing off her loot – she ended up with a couple of pounds as well!

The magic number – Happy Mother’s Day

Four.

That’s the magic number.

It’s the number of times we tried.

It’s the number of different protocols we used.

It’s the number of shots I had to give myself on any given day.

It’s the number of times we prayed/wished/hoped in a day (probably more, but you get the idea).

It’s the number of times I probably cried in one day.

It’s the number of days (total) I spent on bedrest.

But that’s what it took because finally…

 

we are entering our fourth month.

November can’t come soon enough and we will have much MUCH to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.

Of course, now the magic number is two.

Because we’re expecting gemelos.

Yikes.

cheese-ing with sally, baby jesus, coco and baby.

All you mamas out there are an inspiration to me.  When I’m at my wits end (which is more often than I care to admit) I just think of what you all would do. 

Feliz dia! (Happy day!)

watch out christiano ronaldo…

for those of you who don’t know who CR is, click here (and try to keep the drool off your keyboard).

Really, he’s one of the few reasons to watch the world cup in a couple of weeks (I mean, since Ecuador isn’t playing).

Then, check these out…

 i had to include this shot because of our friend, juan (one of those guys who just cracks you up all the time) is in the background.  apparently in his youth he played for the under-18 ecuadorian national team or something.  he’s faux running in the background.

getting ready for a shot.

practicing sitting ‘criss-cross-applesauce’ aka ‘indian style’ (which we don’t say in schools anymore for obvious reasons).

The reason for the game is that just about every year Marcus participates in the “World Cup” Tournament here in Charlotte.  It’s a really cool event with people from all over coming together and playing soccer.  We wives joke (but not really) about who’s getting injured next.  Last year, Marcus came home from the game on crutches and was on them for over a week.  The year before a guy was diving for the ball right in front of us and snapped his wrist (yuck!)  Poor guys – they forget they’re all old and out-of-shape.  Anyway, Saturday’s match was a ‘friendly’ game vs. members of the Swedish team.  Marcus had an unfair advantage because he could understand everything the Swedes were saying.

We can’t wait to wear our 'tricolor’ jerseys and root on our guys! (And we’ll be packing plenty of ace bandages and first aid kits, just in case! :))

st. john’s part 2

So Emilia’s school had a second photo shoot with their photographer, St. John’s, for the Spring.  These are more informal shots – taken around the playground at school, and are exclusively in B & W (which I love).  Had I known they were going to be in B&W I probably would have picked a different outfit for her.  To see them click here, select “order photos”, then “schools”, then “St. John’s Preschool” and enter Emilia’s number 09547.  Can’t wait to get our copies!