Memorial Day Weekend

The first 2 days of our Memorial Day weekend were productive, as I took the opportunity to get our house a little bit clean and slightly more organized. Owning a house and having a family is simply a work in progress. Our house always seems to be a disaster and especially now since I'm working, I can't seem to stay on top of it.


While going through closets, I found this outfit from almost 2 years ago (I bought it at the Children's Place at the end of August of 2007). Reagan was a few months away from turning 2, but I bought a size 18 months, since she was sort of petite. I couldn't believe the skirt still fit her!
Reagan in the same skirt and hat, Sept 6th, 2007 - picture by Christie Adams

Reagan giving Avery a kiss

While organizing closets and doing laundry, Reagan found this skirt of mine and insisted on wearing it ... I was impressed with my creativity to make it fit her: I put one of her arms through the open zipper, then fastened the button at the top of the zipper. Then I tied a knot in the back to take up the slack! Missy, if you're reading this, I know you'll be proud of me! It reminded me of all the times Nadia wore your clothes, or when you turned skirts into dresses :)

Avery 5/25/09

On Memorial Day, we had a very small and mellow barbecue. Nayda (John's aunt) brought over all the ingredients for her Spanish Empanada so she could show John how to make it.

Avery at the table, eating chips

Video of Avery

John bought a swimming pool for the girls, then filled it up with bucket after bucket of hot water (what a sweet Papa they have!). Reagan, Avery and Joaquin loved swimming in it!!

As you can see, Reagan and Avery were loving the water! So happy it's almost summer!!

Just had to post this funny expression on Reagan ... and the suit is pretty funny too! I haven't had time to go shopping for a new bathing suit yet, and this was the only one I had that was 2 piece (now that she's potty trained, a two piece suit makes more sense for easy access!) - it's a size 2T!

One of the great things about having older cousins is that the girls inherit all their cool toys! John's brother's boys outgrew this bouncy house, so they gave it to us! The girls love it :)

Video of the girls in the pool

My sweet friend Diane came over with her 3 kids, JP (4), Kaitlyn (3) and Erin (2 months). Poor Erin spent the entire weekend in the hospital! On Thursday night, they were all packed to go to their lake house when Erin came down with a 101 fever. Her pediatrician told to take her into the ER, since newborns are in danger if they have fevers over 100. To rule out meningitis, they admitted her and did a spinal tap, a catheter, and lots of blood work. She had to stay in the hospital until Sunday when all the blood work came back okay. Turns out it was just a virus, but they had to take all those precautions. I'm glad they could come over and do something fun, since it had been a stressful weekend for them.

JP in the Big Boy chair

Marcelo jumping around the trampoline with Joaquin

Joaquin, Reagan, Avery and Marcelo jumping

As soon as Reagan heard that "baby Erin" was coming, she wouldn't stop talking about holding her ... she was insistent on it, but she was in the pool when they got there. As soon as she got out and got dressed, she couldn't wait any longer!

Unfortunately, every time I handed Erin to Reagan, she started screaming hysterically! Poor Reagan - she was so disappointed that she couldn't hold her very long.

So Diane offered her the perfect solution: she allowed Reagan to give Erin a bottle and Reagan was ecstatic!

JP was really shy at first, but after a little while of playing inside, he came out holding Reagan's hand, with Kaitlyn and Joaquin following. The kids all played so nicely together!

Nayda and Maribel were admiring baby Erin

The highlight of the day came at the end, when everyone went nuts over sweet little Erin!

I can't help it, I think this is the most adorable video clip ever! I couldn't believe how much Avery was loving Erin. I know this will encourage lots of comments to be left on this post, such as "time to have another baby, Amanda!" ~ oh well, I can take 'em! No, we're not planning on having a 3rd child any time soon, but it's definitely in the plans for the future. It was nice to see Reagan and Avery both happy and excited about a baby, no matter how far off that addition may be :)

I couldn't believe how much Avery was loving the baby! She would have laid right on top of her if I'd let her ...

Then Avery insisted on laying right next to Erin, to get as close to her as possible. It was too cute!