Andres' Christmas

Andres was SO excited about the whole christmas and presents thing.... We were not sure he was really getting the idea that Santa was bringing the gifts, but he did !!... We opened his gifts in three stages (well 4 if we count the one he opened on the 23rd). On the 24th beofre we put him to bed he opened some gifts then on Christmas morning and some others that night.

He liked them all a lot, the toys, the boots, the clothes... everything.

Take a look at the andresohara video link on the left to see his new videos.

Christmas celebrations

We were going to have dinner by ourselves on christmas eve but we found out our neighbors, Holli and Ricardo were not traveling so we invited them over. We had a great time, eat together and then played a game. On the 25th we invited Cynthia, Carolina, Shruthi and Ceci (with their repective families) over to a late lunch. We were 10 adults and 8 kids.

Here are some pictures:

Anniversary !!

On the 23rd Jorge and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary. It was snowing all day so we stayed home in pijamas until 4pm I guess... Andres managed to convince us (by hugging and crying) to open one of his christmass gifts. It ended up being a great idea as he was entertained all day with it.
Cynthia came over to watch Andres at night... and we went to have dinner at Biaggi's, dinner was pretty good and we had a great time.. !!!
So in love after 3 years !!!!

Paneton !!

The week of Christmas and New Year, we use to eat back home pannetone. I found a store that sold Peruvian Pannetone and we gave a little bit to Andres for him to try it and he LOVED IT !!... I think so far he has eaten more Pannetone than me !!

Oops !!

As you may have noticed I haven't written much last week... We didn't do much anyway... we were trying to get all the things for Christmas ready. One nice thing we did was going to Minneapolis to the Nutcracker exhibit at Macys, we went with Shruthi and Aarohi and we spent the whole morning there.. after the exibit we walked around and had lunch and then head back home.

Holiday get together

On saturday we had a holiday get together at our place. We had it on saturday so dads could come too. We had a very good time and we ate a lot too, not to mention all the cookies each of us took home... Michelle brought Dominic (who is only 1 week !), he is so cute and tiny (compared to our "little" ones).

Before anybody left we took a group picture, where of course not all the kids were looking or smiling, but at least we were all there !

Playdate at Roshin's

On friday we met at Seema's and Roshin's house. The kids (GReta, Aarohi, Roshin and Andres) had a great time. They played for a while in the basement and then went to Roshin's room to play in the crib. While Seema was preparing them some lunch Andres and Aarohi couldn't stop staring at the tree with the little train going into it that they had in the kitchen. Thanks Seema, we had a great time !!!

Crafts

Today I got some of Andres "art" from school... and as I can't show it to you in person I took some pictures.... I love the bookmark as I started reading a book and was using the ticket as a bookmark, of course he only draw some marks on it... but anyway...

Family picture at Ridgedale

On Saturday we went to Ridgedale mall and Qwest (a communications company) was taking free polaroid pictures. We got one and Andres looks SO cute !!!! I scanned it to have it in my computer.

Winter landscape

Today when I opened the blinds I couldnt believe how nice the landscape was. For some reason, all the trees (ok, just the empty branches of the trees) where white, covered with a thin coat of snow/ice. It looked so nice !!... I took a couple of pictures and couldn't convince Andres to actually be in the picture so it is just landscape. As it is sunny today (COLD, but sunny), it already dissapeared... I'm glad I took some pictures.

Potato Head

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

All done

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

August Rush

Jorge and I went today to the movies... YES, ONLY Jorge and I.. Andres stayed at Aarohi's place (THANKS SHRUTHI !!!).
The movie was so, but so nice... I cried almost half of it (well... pregnancy had a lot to do with it anyway). The soundtrack is amazing, and I love the main character, Freddie Highmore... for some reason I think Patrick will look like him... who knows...

Here is a link to the trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6Hiw5TFgvY&feature=related

Christmas Tree

Over the weekend we put together the Christmas Tree. In Lima, the 8th of December is a holiday so most of the people use the day off to set it up. Andres helped a little bit and is still struggling between touching the ornaments as we have repeated a million times that they are not toys... lets see how much time it will go by until I go down and find everything all over the place !

Look at me Dad !!

Lately, Andres has been trying to imitate everything Jorge does, using his shoes, his tie, spraying cologne, trying to put deodorant on, etc...

Today while we were getting ready to get out, he put his dad shoes on and of course couldn't move a bit, he just enjoys so much looking like his dad !

Bath time

Some nights it takes a lot of time to actually get Andres into the bathtub, he will find any excuse not to get in... but... once he is in, he LOVES it... we loves to paint with his crayons, lay in his back and splash until he is sure everything is really wet !!!... Take a look at the pictures...

New videos

Take a look at http://www.dropshots.com/andresohara I just posted some new videos of Andres singing in spanish and saying please !

More snow

This week it snowed again and we went out to play on thursday, Andres is getting much better in the snow... As we was already "bundled" I took him for a ride in his little car... He has been asking to do so for a while and was pretty happy when we actually went out with it.

And the belly keeps on growing

When I was pregnant with Andres we took a picture of my belly every month to see how fast it grew. That time we decided to do it in a different city every time... Now that I started putting together Andres photo Album, I am so happy I did it as those pictures bring back many memories.

This time, with Patrick, we are doing the same, but the pictures are always in the same place (our deck). We thought it was going to be cool to see the changes of the season with the change in my belly. Of course I will be freezing on the next 4 !!!... Here is the last picture we took yesterday...

El vocabulario de Andres

I will be writing this note in Spanish as it is about Andres vocabulary which is 99% in Spanish.

Andres ultimamente anda hablando como un loro... todo repite pero obviamente muchas de sus palabras a su propia manera... aqui va una lista de algunas de sus palabras:

Tetchis: Leche
Cugo: Jugo
Mano mami: Mami ven conmigo y dame lo que necesito
Peta: Puerta
Piuquilla: Pelicula
Pinguino (lease SIN dieresis): pinguino (lease CON dieresis)
Caisit: Car-seat
Caj: Carro (sigue sin decirlo correctamente y eso que fue una de las primeras palabras que aprendio)
Queti: Galletas
Bajo: Abajo
Esi Anes: Ese es de Andres... osea deja eso que es MIO !!!
Ico: Rico
Neyi: Nieve
Una a ciello: Luna en el cielo
Calle: Calle... usado cuando quiere salir, o cuando quiere irse de algun sitio
Tia: Toda mujer que ve en la calle... sea o no sea la "tia", todas las personas a las que saluda son las tias... y lo mismo aplica con los hombres... asi que se la pasa saludando a todo el mundo en la calle diciendo tia tia... tio tio...
Holla: Hola
Papau-All done !!: Ahora no solo dice papau cuando termina algo o simplemente no quiere mas de algo, no necesariamente comida sino cambiar de juego, etc... sino lo dice en los dos idiomas... papau - All done... algo aprendio en el nido.
Piyu (con acento en la u): Peru.... en respuesta a a donde va ese avion ?? a piyu... donde esta la bebe Sofia... a piyu.... etc... Tambien lo usa para decir casaca porque le dijimos que en una de sus casacas decia Peru y ahora piensa que es el generico para casaca... tipo : Papi piyu papi poni.... osea Papi ponte tu casaca.
Gobo: Gorro
Ganti: Guantes
Cotiro: Helicoptero
Tis tis papi: Papi ponme colonia... porque su papi hace como si le pusiera su colonia a el y le hace un sonido tipo tis tis tis...
Quello: Cuello
Titi: La tia Zinka... por alguna razon decidio que asi le iba a decir y ella no es la Tia Zinka ni Tia ni nada mas que titi.
Maici: Su primo Marcelo
Papaian: Brian
Catrick: Patrick (su futuro hermanito)
Quiquillas: Cosquillas
Puma: sus zapatillas Puma
Dididas: Cualquier cosa que tenga el logo de Adidas... CUALQUIERA de los logos de Adidas... todos se los conoce.
Papaif: Hi - 5
O-ot: Robot
Anja: Naranja
U-eis: Blueberries
U-as: Uvas
tabajo: Trabajo
Ficina: Oficina (a donde esta su papi durante el dia)

Y bueno, eso es solo unas cuantas de sus palabras...las que me vienen a la mente ahorita sobretodo las que dice "diferente" porque ya palabras tipo avion, ventana, tren, papi, mami, cuna, tele, los nombres de los animales, etc... los dice casi iguales...

Lo chevere tambien es que ya arma "frases" y no es solo una sola palabra tipo: Mami, peta bajo tren, lo cual significa Mami abre la puerta para ir abajo a jugar con el tren o, Peta cugo nanja ico que quiere decir abreme la puerta de la refri y dame un jugo de naranja (que le parece rico).

Solo queria compartirlas con ustedes para que se lo imaginen diciendo sus palabritas...

At last healthy and eating !!

I can say now that Andres is not sick anymore... he has been with no fever nor with a bad mood for the last 4 days and he is eating for all the days he has not... My little boy is totally back !!!
I can't blame his behavior and lack of sleep and hunger after having roseola and a cold, but we all survived and the best part is that neither Jorge nor I caught any of both !!

It's starting to feel a lot like Christmas !!

I have to accept that I am little bit like the Grinch, I don't ADORE Christmas like most of the people, but after yesterday's snow and all the decorations all over the place, you can feel that Christmas season is already here. We have already sent our Christmas cards and have taken Andres to visit Santa... He was fine waiting in line and he even was excited watching Santa across the room... such a different story when we actually got there he didn't want to be next to him and started crying out loud... so no picture with Santa to share.

As mentioned we had our first snow storm yesterday, we only went out in the morning and stayed home all afternoon, thanks God to our huge basement !

At night we went out with Andres for him to start getting used to it... he went out and fell a little bit funny walking on the snow... I guess he will get used to it and by the end of the winter he will be asking to be outside all day.

Finally he said it !

I have to admit that Andres has started saying a lot of new words lately... but no matter how hard my mom tried to convince him to say "Zinka" (her name) there was no way he was saying it... He did know who she was... as soon as he hears her voice over the phone or in the computer he will say Buella !!!! (Grandma is abuela in spanish) but was in total denial with the name.
Finally, last thursday he said it !!!... I was going through the family cards and he knows almost everyname and we got to hers and I said what is your grandma's name... and he said ZINKA !!!
Of course, I got it in a video and showed it to my mom, she couldn't sleep that night and I guess she has seen the video a million times !!!

Mall of America

As it was so cold today I decided to go to MOA so Andres could get distracted indoors. He had a great time, we stoped at the Disney store as soon as we got there where I bought him a pack of "Cars" cars he played with them all the time we stayed in the mall.

He was really surprised with all the christmas decorations and loved when Santa waved at him.

He also played a while at Legoland and then we had lunch. He was exhausted when we got back to the car so he fell asleep inmediately and when we got home kept on sleeping for 2 more hours !!

This week

It is amazing how fast this week went by.... We didn't do much on monday because Andres got a fever again so he was not in a very good mood and we had to go to the pediatrician again. Luckily it was just a cold and it was ending so by the end of the day he was fine.
Tuesday he had preschool and did great he is totally used to me leaving :)
We actually had our first parent-teacher conference and Miss Kelly said he was doing great and had adjusted very well.
Wednesday he went to school again and had a playdate in our house in the afternoon, he had a great time with Ana Sofia, Aarohi, Franche and Cata... I forgot to bring down my camera so have no pictures to share....

Jorge's Birthday and Thanksgiving day

Jorge's birthday this year was the same day as thanksgiving so he didn't have to go to work. We had some friend over for lunch and had a great time. We got Jorge the Lord of the rings and the Star Wars Trilogies and he loved them.

Snow is here

On wednesday we went out to buy some groceries and when we came out there was snow all over the place... Andres was so excited to see the snow. He was too little last year to remember it and he tried to grab some snow flakes and touched the snow on the floor. It snowed all night so on thursday morning there was a bit of snow all over so we went outside to play for a little while.

I think Andres will really enjoy the snow this year, guess one of his christmas gifts will need to be a sled so we can play a while outside in our looooong winter !

Happy Thanksgiving day

Today I dropped Andres to school and he did GREAT ! Not even one tear, we stayed calm, played well with the other kids and even enjoyed outside time. He also did a Thanksgiving project with his hands and he was fine getting them dirty with paint. I am so happy he got used to the school so fast :)

Here is a picture of the project he did: HAPPY THANKSGIVING DAY TO ALL !

Much better now !!

Andres was not feeling very good since Sunday... he actually had a high fever that didn't go down all sunday night until 6am on monday. We went to the doctor and she thought it could be a tummy flu... he was feeling bad, and was complaining a lot. Good thing was that he slept through the night and didn't had a fever until tuesday morning. All day he was fine and had a good night yesterday and today he is totally fine (or so we say !!)

It was good it didn't last for long... we felt so bad just seeing him not smiling all day !!!

David and Naomi's visit !!

David is a close friend of Jorge from the time he was working at Medtronic in Santa Rosa, CA. I really like him, and he had promised us that he would come to visit SOOOOOOOOOOOO long ago we thought he was never going to make it, specially since the cold weather had already started.
BUT, he did come to visit us ... YEEEEEEEEAH !!!... He and Naomi (his girlfriend) got here saturday morning and we toured around Minneapolis for a while, she was pretty surprised with the skywalks. The city is already being decorated for the holidays and looks so nice.
David bought Andres a really cute Adidas outfit which he wanted to wear right away.. you can see it in the pictures... he also bouhgt him a hocke goalie so he is already practicing hockey now.

We really enjoyed having them over, they are leaving tomorrow and before heading to the airport we will stop a while at MOA.

Andres second week at school !!

This week we decided to leave Andres at school for 4 days instead of 2 for him to get used to the school faster. He did great and although he starts whining when we get there, as soon as I leave he is prefectly fine with the teachers and cries less than 5 minutes.
He already knows both of the teachers names, Kelly and Cyndee and would be next to them as much as possible.
He loves playing with the trucks and cars (no wonder) and is starting to enjoy the art projects... he HATES so much to get his hands dirty... but he is learning to deal with it.
At school they also teach him some Yoga posses and it is so funny to actually see him doing them at home, he know the belly and the snake one. The first ones is basically to lay flat on the floor bellies down... he wants us to do it with him. Snake is similar but he will do kind of a push up and then hiss... it is SO FUNNY !!!!

Family pictures flash cards.

More than a year ago, I made Andres som flash cards of the family so he could actually get familiar with their faces. He was not very good with them at the beggining and he just recognized his dad, mom and Abuelo Pepe (grandpa). He was much better when we came back from Lima this time, but of course after a year, the pictures of his baby cousins needed to be updated and also I felt that they were too big.

I format them again, making them sixe 2 x 3 and print them all. I put some plastic cover around and bought some magentic tape so they could stick to a magnetic board (in the picture they are over another thing). He loves playing with them and would take them all of the board and then put them all in their place again naming each of the people he remembers.... It is a great way to remember everybody's face !!!

Playdate at Cristina and Ana Sofia's house

On Wednesday we went to Cristina and Ana Sofia's house for a playdate. The kids had a great time, and we ate tons of cookies and cake that Cristina had for us. At the beggining we played downstairs, and then the kids decided that they were going up and their favorite game was going up and down the stairs and running all around the house. Cristina had also left for them some bubble wrap and they enjoyed playing with it a lot !!!

We've got a winner

Finally, after having read the Baby names book a million times and going through every single one of the names over and over again, we agreed in one.

This time we were more aware of chosing a name easy enough to pronounce in both English and Spanish... which we thought was the case of Andres, but found out later that it was not that easy for english speakers. Also, we couldn't use a name that finished in o... due to Jorge's last name starting in O... and of course all the names I liked Jorge didn't and vice versa. So, the task of finding a name was harder than normal.

We had a little list of possible names, and today I tested the two I liked the most (and that were on the favorite list of Jorge) with Andres, and it seems that he prefered one as it was easier for him to repeat... and therefore we got a winner.

The baby name we chose is: Patrick. We are pretty happy with the decision and Andres already know that his brother name is Patrick... well.. really he says Catrick... but is close enough and we still have 4 1/2 months for him to practice.

I have to accept that one of the reasons why the baby is called Patrick is because I am a big fan of Grey's Anatomy... and of course of Dr. Sheperd whose real name is "Patrick" Dempsey... hahahaha....

Peruvian Lunch

Every month we try to get together with our peruvian group and have a peruvian lunch. This month we decided to have "Chifa" which is a fusion of peruvian and chinese food. Each of us brought something to eat and needless to say we ate GREAT and A LOT !!!.

Imelda was a host and she did an amazing job, she not only prepared 3 different dishes for us, but had the table set for chinese food, with chop sticks and even chinese dinnerware. Thanks Imelda we had a great time !!!! I forgot the camera, but Cynthia did a great job taking pictures (as usual).

So much food !!!

On saturday we met the Nawab family (Rahul, Shruthi and Aarohi) to have brunch at the Original panckae house, as usual the kids loved being around each other, after we finished eating we let them play around the table, and they were climbing up the high chairs, chasing each other laying on the floor, etc... we had a great time and ate a lot !!

Nesting... nesting.. nesting...

To those of you who don't know what nesting instinct is, here is a definition I got from a pregnancy website:

"Around the fifth month of pregnancy, the "nesting" instinct can set in. This is an uncontrollable urge to clean one's house brought on by a desire to prepare a nest for the new baby, to tie up loose ends of old projects and to organize your world."

Well, what can I tell you, that instinct is already here for me... yesterday I spent all afternoon cleaning up Andres' toys. I separated the infant toys from the ones that are more appropiate forhis age now... Of course as soon as I was putting the infant toys away, Andres started playing with them. It was actually pretty useful, as there was a lot of space used in his basement with toys he was no longer playing with but always ended up all over the place.
Next step... separate Andres' clothes per age, I have already brought up (actually Jorge did) the clothes that were in the basement closet and the rest are in Andres' room... hopefully I will have that done this week...

Another ultrasound

I got a call during the week that I had to go to another ultrasound this week. They wanted to double check that there was no problem with the baby due to the positive result of the Quad screen that ended up being 100% confirmed as a false positive. They took a full hour to check every single thing of the baby... it was pretty amazing to see how perefect they are even so little.

Andres stayed all afternoon with Cynthia while I was in the appointment and he behaved perfectly fine, no crying no asking about mommy... THANKS CYNTHIA !!!

Here is a picture of the baby....

First official day at Preschool

Andres started preschool today. He will be going twice a week for a couple of hours. We want him to get used to it before the new baby is due .

As expected, he cried for a while, but after 20 minutes he had calmed down and he was even happier when he figured out he was having orange for snack... his favorite fruit !!..

Right now I am at Starbucks waiting to pick him up... I have so many things I've planned to do while he is at school: have Andres' pictures put in an album/scrapbook, paint Andres' new room, put in order Andres' clothes that the new baby will use, etc... Lets see how much I really do...

Matching outfits !!

I bought Andres a red Jacket back in Peru that looked like a Puma jacket but instead of saying Puma and having an actual puma animal said Peru and had a Vicuna. Jorge loved it and asked me to buy one for him as well. They wore them this weekend... they looked so cute dressed as twins. !!