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. !!

Saturday plans

On saturday we went to the childrens museum.There was a Sesame Street exhibit and Andres was thrilled to see al the characters. He loved one of the activities which made him be inside the TV with Elmo... he started to dance and sing with him.

In the afternoon, Jorge decided to clean up the garden and Andres "helped" him a little bit. I love how the trees look in fall, unfortunately most of the trees have no leaves already... so I guess this will be the most "fallish" picture Andres will have:

Andres & Jorge playing music together

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Andres and his dad playing some music

Andres loves when Jorge plays guitar and harmonica to him. We bought him a little guitar on our trip to Peru and they were playing together yesterday... take a look at the video

It's a boy !!!

We found out thursday afternoon that Andres will have a baby brother. We are really excited with the news !!
Funny thing was that almost a month ago I totally felt that the baby was going to be a boy, and the same thing happened with Andres, so I guess people will have to trust my mother instinct.
Now we can start thinking about Andres' new room as his brother will be using his.

Halloween

Andres had a great time in Halloween ! We had a haloween playdate on monday the 29th and Aarohi, Greta, Marianna, Alex, Emma and Ana Sofia were here (with their moms). Also as he is starting preschool tomorrow (OMG !!! hope it goes fine), he was invited to the halloween parade on wednesday.

Also on Halloween afternoon we went trick or treating to Jorge's office... Andres got a lot of treats and got to know and meet again Jorge's coworkers.

He was dressed up as Thomas the tank engine, he is totally into Thomas nowadays... but it was a good thing as he didn;t want to take out his costume...