Productive Weekend

Sofia likes spending Saturday mornings in her PJs, watching “Sesame Street” and flipping through the “Economist”.




Some heavy reading

Sofia helped to paint her room this weekend. She’s going from a yellow/red color scheme to a pink/chocolate brown scheme. Joe finished Fiona’s room last weekend. We’re almost done with the makeovers!

Sofia didn’t care for our suggestions on how to paint:

Child labor?

She quickly recovered:


And she enjoyed her work:


A budding muralist…

And finally…the baby’s still cooking. 33 weeks so far.


I'm huge!

Joe's Big 33! January 11, 2008

We celebrated Joe’s birthday by going to dinner and watching a movie. Molly and Joel babysat Sofia and were great. They even brought her home and put her to bed. This really allowed me to enjoy our “date night”.

We ventured to the east side and dined at “Lopez”, a Mexican restaurant a la Rick Bayless. The food was great and the sip from Joe’s margarita was very yummy. After dinner we went to the Cedar Lee and watched “Juno”. The lead actress, as has been noted over and over, was great and the writing was very, very good. I really liked it, although I thought it was a little too clever. It was very reminiscent of Mike Nichol’s directorial style, especially as the soundtrack played an integral part in the storyline. Regardless it was well worth watching and will probably be a touchstone for the current high school generation; much like “Sixteen Candles” or “The Breakfast Club” was for us.

MLK Weekend - January 19-21

We had a busy and fun weekend. Sofia’s recovered from a weird, itchy, rash that had her housebound with Joe for a few days and was back to her cheery self.

On Saturday we had lunch with Mike and his wife Stacy, and Brian and his wife Kathy at Chedder’s. Mike and Brian were Joe’s co-workers from Westfield. It was a nice reunion and Sofia did well at the restaurant enjoying chicken and a little gourmet mac and cheese.

Later that night we went to Chris and Naomi’s house to celebrate Naomi’s bday. The only photo I took isn’t very good, but here it is:


Ann & “Lil' Big Will” hang out with Joe and Sofia in the kitchen.

Sofia had a fun time running around the house and sometimes playing with the Wills.

Sunday we attended the Ohio City Babysitting Co-op Social at Chris and Ann’s. It was fun to share an afternoon with several babies and toddlers.





Hosts Chris and “Lil' Big Will”

On Monday we went to Severance Hall and caught the Youth Orchestra and Youth Choir. The performance was very impressive and beautiful. Sofia liked looking around at the audience and spent much of the time chatting with the women seated behind us. Unfortunately there were some soft lulls in the music and Sofia chose that time to yell “mine” while pointing to the Cheerios she was munching on. Regardless, I think she enjoyed the music.


Busted! We were told we couldn’t take photos



Bundled against the cold Cleveland winter

An Afternoon at the Cleveland Children's Museum

We had planned to go to the Cleveland Children’s Museum a couple of weekends ago, but had to postpone due to Sofia’s ear infection. Thankfully she was a little better this past weekend (although she had refused to take a nap that day) and we met up with Emma, Rob and Edie.

The Museum looks small and unassuming from the outside, but it’s surprisingly wide and open. There are several theme rooms and we began on the “farm.” There was a barn that had stairs leading to a bright, yellow slide. When we arrived Edie was happily sliding down, sporting her cute, new haircut. Sofia was content to watch Edie and the other children for a while. She didn’t venture onto the slide, but did “pick” corn from the stalks and collected plastic eggs from the hen house. She also rode shotgun while Edie “drove” the Jeep onto the fields.



A new “friend” joins Sofia and Edie in the Jeep. A frog also jumped on board. You can also see Sofia's butchered haircut. We tried to give her bangs.

After the farm, we went to the Galapagos Island. We took off Sofia’s shoes so she could walk in the sand, but she was reluctant to let her feet touch the ground.


Sofia arched her feet whenever Daddy tried to put her down.

After a few minutes she relented and began exploring the archeological dig.

Once the dig was fully explored, we went to the Water/Weather Section. The water table demonstrated how locks and dams raise and lower water levels. Kids could also connect pipes to re-route water. Joe had fun with that.



The Girls also had a chance to read the weather and to be on TV.

To wrap things up, we went shopping in a miniature grocery store.

Christmas Time in Illinois

Given Sofia’s disdain for long car rides, we decided to fly to Chicago. We also decided to try out our new portable DVD player and bought an Elmo “Country Songs Special” and Barney “Musical Scrapbook” DVD for the occasion. Sofia did as well as could be expected, alternating between squirming on my lap and Joe’s and shredding the in-flight magazine. She liked the Elmo DVD, when they sang, but was very impatient when there was “too much talking.” Thankfully it’s a short flight.

Overall, Christmas was hectic, as usual, trying to spend as much time as possible with both sides of the family and trying to squeeze in time with friends as well. We did manage to visit Woodfield Mall to spy on Santa in the hopes Sofia might agree to have her picture taken with him. She declined, but here’s a shot of her, at the mall, in her adorable red wool coat.



Friends

Joe and I hung out with friends the first night. I met up with Rosy, Ale, her sister Gabby, Allison and Sara at Adobo Grill in Wicker Park. Joe got pretty intoxicated (thanks, guys!) with Beedon and Keegan. Arling was stuck in LA (he was to have met up with the guys that night), but came over for dinner a few days later.

Here are the girls…Gabby, Ale and Rosy pose:


And Allison, Sara and me:


A few days later, Sofia, my parents and I visited Ale and her boys at their home. The boys are adorable and getting big! Mati is 2 ½ years old and Emi (whom I finally met!) is about 8 months old. Mati shared his toys with Sofia and Serge and Ale fed us Giordano’s. I miss Chicago pizza!!








Here Serge and Ale try to juggle three:


Family
We juggled Christmas Eve between my brother’s, Joe’s family’s and my parents. We had brunch at my brother’s Luis and enjoyed the kids opening their gifts.

We tried getting the kids to pose…Sofia doesn’t seem to like the paparazzi.















And then we tried a family photo. Sofia likes to wiggle.


She finally sat still with the grandparents.




After my brother’s we went to Joe’s uncle Gary’s home. Here Sofia enjoys time with Uncle Steve.



Sofia enjoyed being tickled by Granny:




And Grandpa Joe and Papa Joe:




We visited with my brother’s daughter Aurora on Christmas Day.



Aurora playing with Rudolph.

Cousins Keira and Brendan came over a few days later. Sofia and Keira played together and shared their toys.


The girls "catch up" on girl talk


The girls share baby duties.

Here Sofia gets to know her newest cousin, Brendan.

PJ Day at School!

The day before we left for Chicago, Sofia had PJ day at school. Here are a few photos of her in her PJs at school.


Sofia grabs her lunchbox, ready to go home.


Hugging her friend Claire.


Playing with a snowman.