non-triumphs

clearly, I do not know how to stick to a plan. I wanted to blog every day, but there is nothing to share or I can't remember it. My work out routine was derailed by a cold. Now I have to start the 32 days all over again. Boo.

At 5pm I realized I completely and utterly forgot to coordinate a meeting time and place for the group of girls I (try to) mentor. They were going to a college workshop and I forgot to call them last night. Luckily it worked out but I felt like such a dumb ass. To boot, when I checkd my email I realized I forgot to cancel with a friend who had invited me over tonight. Not that she was waiting for me, but I it's pretty rude not to respond to an invite. I don't know where my head has been these past few days. Perhaps my brain isn't functioning properly due to the pressure I feel from this head cold. Maybe I need a Blackberry.

I was feeling pretty down. Then Freddie took me shopping this evening. I hate shopping. I'm too short and "stout" (as I like to put it) to make clothes shopping an enjoyable experience. My husband is great because he dragged me to a few stores, pointed out nice things and never gave up on me. I'm pretty near impossible to go shopping with. I happily report I bought an outfit. I even bought some accesories. Oh wait, just one. In any case, it was a small triumph in a day full of non-triumphs.

State of the Union

I'm too much of a fan of Obama to be genuinely critical of his speech today. I know he tried to be honest and hopeful. I'm realistic, yet optimistic. I agree with Bobby Jindal that Americans can do anything and appreciate his insight, even if it wasn't all too clear to me.

For eight years I watched Bush's speeches, not in their entirety of course, I had to read them b/c I couldn't stand his smirks or laughter. Never did he make a genuine plea to the kids in this country, but tonight Obama did. It doesn't take much to make me cry, so it's no surprise that I teared up during Obama's speech. Tomorrow I get to go to work armed with a new mantra for me and more ammo to use on the kids I work with: "when you drop out of high school, you not only quit on yourself, you quit on your country!"

The challenge

I'm pretty sure I am stealing someone else's idea, but I don't think they'll mind. I am going to share some of my goals with anyone who's interested. The idea being that I will feel more obliged to follow through with the goals since others will supposedly be paying attention to my progress. I already mentioned I wanted to keep up with this blog. The 2nd goal on my list is my 32 day challenge. Starting on my 32nd birthday I plan on going to the gym/workout for 32 days in a row! 2/32 down. While I hope to lose weight and feel stronger, the real goal is merely to make it to 32 days of physical activity. I'm not very good at maintaining anything for longer than 2 weeks so this challenge will be multifaceted.

Hopefully I can make a habit of this work-out thing. My high school friend, Angela, is a triathelte and her blog is a great inspiration and reminder to me that my pitiful 1/2 hour run is a drop in the bucket! I don't plan on an Iron Man competition in Hawaii, but I do plan on a few 5K's this year, starting with #1 on Sunday.

Wish me luck!

32

So today I turn 32. I want to use this opportunity to start and continue a few things, one of which is this blog.

This weekend was one of the nicest birthday weekend's ever! We had a wonderful family dinner on Friday, followed by family game night. We are trying to plan family events and outings every weekend since we already know when Freddie will deploy again (end of April until August). Friday we attempted family bingo & pizza night at Chayla's school. It was too crowded so we left and opted for Armands pizza followed by Trivial Pursuit- Lord of the Rings edition. I know it's cheesy, but we are big fans of the movies.

Freddie made an appointment for me at a nice hair salon and I finally got a haircut that I love. Last year's haircut made me look like a soccer mom and I came home crying. Later that evening when I got in the car for our dinner date I came across a box with a beautiful pair of pearl earrings. We had a delicious dinner at Ceviche, a place in downtown Silver Spring. Then today I got a delicious breakfast, beautiful cards from the kids and a pair of gold earrings from Chayla. After an awesome workout I came home to birthday cupcakes and they all sang for me. Mateo was so excited for me. I wish I would've taken video. The final present was a beautiful book published by the NY Times that documents Obama's historic road to the White House. The book was a reminder to me of all the change the country has experienced and the good things I have in my life.

I'm grateful I had such a wonderful birthday with my beautiful family. Here's to many more! Cheers!

Vegging out

Mateo was sick since Thursday and I thought I had avoided catching it, but alas, I did not avoid it. I woke up feeling like crap but since we had accomplished so much this weekend I decided it was ok to veg. We all woke up late and eventually we all snuggled up in bed to watch The Incredible Hulk. I think Chayla and I enjoyed it more than Mateo. He likes the nicer version of the Hulk; the one that gets excited about "weekends, sunny days, and the ice cream truck." It really is a quote from his book.

No word from Freddie yet. These last few days are going by so slowly. Since I haven't heard from him even by email, I'm worried that he won't be back for a while more. He just better be back by Dec 23rd because we have tickets to PR and I am getting the heck out of Dodge and on to tropical paradise!

ABC's and F

How good it feels to have a clean and organized house. First room to suffer a purge was Mateo's room. I hadn't done anything in his room since...I don't know when. He still had 12M clothes in his drawers and baby gear in his closet. I made a nice pile of stuff to give my sister-in-law who will add another Santiago to the family next summer. I sorted clothes by size and what I would keep for the next boy (which I am determined to have) and stuff to give away. As I was putting stuff in the attic I found a whole other bin full of clothes a friend had sent to me when Mateo was one. I had forgotten about it and now he has twice as many clothes as he'll ever need for a two year old. I rearranged his room to make the most of the very small space and I finally hung up the wall decorations I bought before he was born. As I laid him to bed last night he said, "thank you for cleaning my room mami." He finally has a room.

I continued the furious cleansing in my room, except there was so much s$*%t everywhere that I only managed to pick up my clothes & change the bed sheets as I watched Big Love, the HBO series on polygamists. I love cable shows like Six Feet Under, the Tudors, and Dexter, especially b/c they are on demand. I digress.

Chayla was very intrigued at my ability to organize. She is quite the organizer herself so she pays attention to that type of stuff. I offered to organize her room as long as she promised not re-organize everything the minute I left the room, which used to be the case in Austin. So I spent the better part of the day transforming her room and discovering that she isn't as organized as I thought. It was all superficial! She had a wide variety of bags full of junk stuffed in various containers. The bookshelf did not have books on it and her floor was littered with remnants of her arts & crafts projects. Lord. I told her that the key to keeping organized is patience. Instead of stuffing to get things out of sight, she had to think about what she was doing and putting items in their place. We'll see how long this lasts.

Mateo played around the house as Chayla and I worked. He was pretty good today. We found out that he could sing the alphabet song by himself. I'll post the video as soon as he lets me take it! I also discovered that he picked up the unsavory language I use in the car. I hate driving in DC- people are SLOW! I guess Mateo figured out that the F-word is used after a moment of frustration. When he couldn't find his magnetic letter A that flew into the living room after Chayla kicked it, he expressed his frustration with a big, "F*#%, I can't find it mom!" Boy, did I underestimate his speaking abilities.

Post Thanksgiving

Yesterday was a bit hysterical. At first it was smooth sailing as I cooked up a storm. I was so inspired by the Puerto Rican dishes I was making, I put on some music and was dancing in the kitchen. As the pernil roasted in the oven, I fried up the plantains for mofongo (which eventually just turned into Puerto Rican stuffing b/c I couldn't make it into balls). I really got into mashing up the platanos with the bacon and garlic in the pilon I got in Brazil. What a great time. Until Mateo rolls up into the kitchen as I was trying to cook the arroz con gandules. The first step to this dish is vital. If you don't get the seasoning right, the rice just taste like rice. So in walks Mateo and begins having a fit, pulling my leg, screaming, hitting me. I don't even know why. I eventually put him in time-out until I could finish. Then I go "talk" to him but he was not interested in what I had to say. Then Chayla was skulking about since she was annoyed too. She was trying to figure out what I had told her to do earlier in the day so she could be allowed outside to play. I was so frustrated with telling her to do the same thing everyday that I simply told her that when she remembers what I asked her to do and does it then MAYBE she can play (eventually she made a list of all these things to which she must refer before she asks me to do anything). It's funny how quickly she "remembers" to brush her hair when playtime depends on it. So as Mateo was hysterical and Chayla frustrated I tried to deal with the cooking, which had been going so well up until then. Luckily I finished and even got to rake the front yard before finally getting to shower. Mateo only took a 30 minute nap (part of the bigger problem too) so I wasn't able to do much else but shower. Then we sat down to our sad little dinner. I say sad, not because of my food (it was actually delicioso) but because it was just us 4, minus Freddie. This is the 1st Thanksgiving I can remember that he wasn't around. Except for the fact that we were dressed nicely, it just felt like a regular ol' dinner. We gave our thanks, ate our food, yet we were still bummed about Freddie's absence.

After Mateo had 2 slices of pumpkin pie we went to my coworker's house to hang out and meet another Puerto Rican family. That was nice given that we weren't with our own extended family. Mateo got along fantastically with her family, giving hugs, talking, and sharing nicely. I could hardly believe my eyes. He was a perfect angel. I figured it was because he thought all these loud, brown people speaking Spanish were family. Leave it to Mateo though to not disappoint. He had a massive break down right as we were leaving to go home. He squirmed all over the floor and screamed as I tried to put on his puffy coat. I thought I had almost made it out of there having given the impression that I had these two well-behaved, cute kids. Just kidding.

He fell asleep in the car and we got home safe and sound (there were some seriously deranged drivers on the Beltway last night). As I laid him down in his crib he said he loved me very much. While I had been angry earlier, his little voice melted my heart. I went to bed last night thankful for having this love in my life and BEGGING for a little patience and guidance to get through the terrible two's. 7 months to go.