Luli Dresses Herself

This post is mostly for my brother, who gets a real kick out of little kids dressing themselves in ridiculous outfits. Luli dresses herself everyday, and for the most part she does a great job, but it helps that her wardrobe has coordinating colors. This day she came down with her fleece pants, and striped dress. I try to stay positive and let her go with her latest creation but this had me laughing. I asked her if she thought the fleece pants might be too warm at school, which generally is a very warm place, but she was pretty clear they would be perfect. Usually we were leggins under our dresses rather than tights because they are easier for school and the bathroom, etc. So that's where the pants came from. I did encourage her to get a sweater for the trip to school and some socks. She picks out this blue pull over sweater and striped knee socks. This outfit couldn't crack me up more, so it had to be documented. Fiona wanted in on the picture too, I can't resist the cuteness of these two!

Visit to Maine

At the end of July/beginning of August we took a lovely trip to Maine to visit my brother and attend my good friend Jen Kieley's wedding. I think we chose the most beautiful week to be in Maine, the whether was for the most part really lovely and made me want to live there. Then I had to remember that, like upstate New York, winter is a LONG season in Maine...so I'll stick with Virginia. My brother was kind enough to let the Santiago familia crash his one bedroom apartment and wreck havoc on his beautiful space for Wednesday night (our arrival night, and Monday night the night before our departure). He does have the most amazing apartment, it's very unique and just all around awesome. Being the exceptional Uncle Eyes that he is, he even bought toys for the girls to play with and invited his good friend who has a son the same age as Luli over to play. It was so nice to meet Patrick's friends and spend some much need quality time with my brother.

On Thursday we drove up to Belfast Maine and made a few stops along the way to enjoy as much of Maine as we could. We stopped at a Fish Hatchery and the guys were nice enough to give us a little tour and answer all of our questions. They even pulled out some fish at different ages for us to see their growth and how beautiful their color was. Pretty cool. Then we continued on to our hotel and the Lobster Bake wedding party before the wedding! It was a gorgeous night and we indulged in blueberry soup (a winner for the kids, and adults), lots of lobster, blueberry pie, and smore's by the fire pit. We had a great time and got to see a few old friends from our days in co-op country.

On Friday we toured around Belfast, which is a really adorable New England town. It had lots of shopping lots boats, and yummy restaurants with lobster rolls aplenty! In town we ran into even more friends (not surprising, it's a small town and we were all here for the wedding of the decade)! Then it was time to get back to the hotel, hopefully get the girls a nap and get dressed for the big night!

It was really special to be here for Jen and Brad's wedding. They've been together for so long and been through so much. Jen has always been a great friend and is the reason I even went on date with Oscar to begin with. I wouldn't have missed her big day for the world. Unfortunately it did POUR during the ceremony so that was a bit of a damper. We couldn't hear anything and I really wanted to hear the vows they'd prepared for each other. The reception was a lot of fun and I think Luli dominated the bride and her family's time on the dance floor. While Fiona clung to her new best friend Caroline!

On Saturday we departed for Bar Harbour to enjoy some time in Acadia National Park. Wow is it beautiful there. We swam in the ocean, swam in a lake, hiked, picnicked, and took tons of pictures...which are all in an album to the left here. Then we ventured back to Portland to spend our last night with Uncle Eyes and return home to our normal lives.

Fiona 2 year check up and Update

As we know Fiona is now TWO! Which is her answer to: How old are you? TWO, What's your name? TWO, How are you? TWO. She went for her well baby check with Dr. Ben, and of course cried hysterical the entire time. DELIGHTFUL! She was hard to get a height read on, so she may have grown 4 inches in 6 mths (doubt it). Fiona is 50th percentile in height and 30th percentile in weight. She's a healthy little lady and really there wasn't much to discuss at the appointment. Besides Dr. Ben's love for her haircut! ha!

Fiona is talking up a storm and has an incredible personality. She continues to have a devilish streak with the smiling face to boot. She's definitely in need of some more discipline, but it does appear that second child gets away with a bit more. We're working on that. She also seems to have had a break through with her potty training. She was doing really great while visiting my parents, when we returned home the change definitely showed in her potty training. It took a long time to get back on track but this week she's had a break through and is doing quite well.

Her biggest thing right now is Nemo, and by biggest I mean both in size and her love of. My brother, Uncle Eyes, bought Luli a large Nemo for her first birthday. Its been played with here and there since, but at my parents I let the girls watch Finding Nemo. Ever since, Fiona has not let Nemo go. He literally goes everywhere. I won't let her bring him in the car or the stroller because he's too large, but she drags him everywhere. Luli is a great helper, carrying him up and down the stairs all day. So that's why the pics of her here are all of her with Nemo, just to show the attachment! He even potty's with her!

Fireworks - A mixed review

Thursday night our neighborhood held their fireworks spectacular. It is really amazing to see such a show from a neighborhood, it's quite professional and lasting at least 20 minutes. There were smiley faces, hearts, and star shaped fireworks as well as the traditional ones that shower from the sky.

We enjoyed a lovely dinner on the deck, got the girls in their pj's and then headed down the street with our blanket to a nice spot on a hill of the golf course adjacent to our house. We had a great spot, not near any crowds and the girls were able to run around and play on the golf course. Luli had her first experience rolling down a hill, taught and displayed by her father. Fiona really wanted to do it too but couldn't really figure out how to work her body for that purpose yet.

When the show started it was no surprise that she screamed in fright and ran straight for me. Fiona's always been easily spooked by loud sounds. Luli on the other hand made her way to Oscar's lap and enjoyed the show, commenting on how pretty they were and how she wanted more smiley face ones! Uncle Eyes seemed impressed by our lil' neighborhood show. Which this made it all the easier to decline the trip into the city to watch those the following evening and fight that crowd - no thanks!

Family Fun Filled Fourth

We enjoyed a wonderful Fourth of July holiday this year. Uncle Eyes, known to the rest of the world as Patrick, my brother, came to visit Thursday evening. He flew in from Portland and his 1.5 hr flight was only half the time it took me to drive to BWI on Thursday afternoon. Wow that was some crazy traffic, for three hours I didn't get out of 2nd gear! Anywhoo, the rest of the weekend was a lot of fun and a lot of reminiscing. Several of my maternal side cousins came down (I only clarify because I have the world's largest amount of cousins if you add in both maternal and paternal) and stayed with my Aunt and Uncle. We had a great time lounging by the pool Friday and Saturday, and laughing into the late night hours.

It was a lovely weekend to have my brother here, it's the first time he's visited us in this house, and at least 4 years since the last time he came down to visit. My cousin Bob is also leaving on a world tour next week so it was great to see him, and his lovely girlfriend, prior to his departure.

After days of eating and staying up late my body is yearning for the gym and my bed, an interesting combo!