Things Happen

So over the years, I have had several turtles, I have even adopted turtles. But as of monday night the last turtle in the tank has gone to turtle heaven. I had prepped JP saying that we should expect one of the boys to notice the missing tank. Right on cue...John David asked where the tank was as soon as he sat down to eat his breakfast. I told him the tank was gone because the turtle was gone. He asked me if I threw the turtle away. About a minute later Sammy comes up to me and says "that's terrible, but it's okay...things happen." I had to hold back the laughter because he was being serious...and Sammy is rarely serious.

Batman

So this weekend while we were visiting the Sarman's we learned that Thomas likes Superman, and pretends to be him. He was even wearing his Superman pj's with a cape. Apparently Sammy has a favorite superhero, and we just didn't know. I guess he was not going to let Thomas have one up on him. He kept telling Thomas he was Batman. At one point I even overheard them arguing with each other about who was better. This argument was a traditional kid argument complete with the loud voices and the "my dad says" lines. This continued all weekend, even when they were happily swinging next to each other. It was really quite cute.
This evening I told Sammy I had a surprise for him. I took him upstairs and gave him a Batman costume that used to be John David's. My mom gave them each a Batman costume many years ago, but even my little Sammy can't fit into a size 1-2, so he had to wear his brother's size 2-4. He was sooo excited, and put it on right away. He kept running around the kitchen and living room. JP even sang the Batman tune for him and whenever he stopped, Sammy would ask for him to sing it again. He said that the cape helped him fly and even wanted to sleep with it, but since it is a costume he had to take it off. I am sure that we will see Batman again tomorrow and the next day after that and the next day and many more next days...know what I mean.

Carlos is 19 months

Carlos is very happy and active. He has a very cute and contagious laugh, and loves to give kisses and zurberts. He is brave and willing to try anything. While in The Woodlands for Aimee's party, Raja took him up the slide at Pump It Up. He was scared the first time, but he wanted to go again because his brothers kept going. So after coming down a couple more times on mommy's lap he was ready to go solo. JP thought I was crazy when I laid him on his belly and let him go down feet first. He laughed the whole way down. After this he would walk to the slide when he was ready to go up. Daddy got a chance to take him up and see how much he enjoyed it, especially when his brothers came down beside him.
His favorite things at the moment are holding his and Emma's lovies in the car. He has also started sleeping with a stuffed elephant this past weekend. He loves carrying around any bag with a handle and putting things in it. He also thinks it is funny to knock down the lego towers Sammy and John David build. I don't think they find it as funny...you can generally hear Carlos laughing, and them going "no no, Nene."

Mystery Solved

SO the hunt for a Scooby Doo lunchbox has come to an end. Raja and Sharmila found one at the Target in Kingwood on saturday. People kept asking us what the lunchbox looked like and we couldn't answer until now. It is in the shape of the Mystery Machine, and has all the characters looking out the windows. It is really quite cute. John David was excited to see Scooby. It was Sammy though who made the comment that it was "Scooby and the Gang"John David placed the lunchbox on the nightstand next to the bed that night. Then on sunday on the way back to Austin he had the lunchbox in his lap while he watched Scooby Doo videos. When we got to my mom's for dinner he took it down to show her. On monday his backpack arrived, and as soon as we opened the packaged he put it on, and then ran to get his lunchbox, and was walking around with both. John David is the happy camper as we keep buying all his stuff for school. I just hope he doesn't loose all the happiness and excitement for the first day of school.

I scream, u scream, we all scream for ice cream

So we left for Houston on friday. We decided to go tour Blue Bell. We had heard that there might be a wait for a tour, so we got there early. Turned out we were set for the 12:45 tour. It was 12:20 and we were waiting for our tour. We had not had lunch yet, because we figured if we had a long wait we could always eat while we waited. The boys were hungry, so daddy bought them a scoop of Cookies and Cream to share while we waited.
We departed on our tour and got to see them make Rocky Road, Strawberry, Moollenium Crunch, Buttered Pecan, and ice cream sandwiches. Did you know that one machine can make 120 sandwiches per minute? It was really cool to see them pour all the ingredients in gigantic quantities. At the end of the tour you get a scoop of ice cream, so John David had Rainbow Sherbet, Sammy had Cookie Dough, JP had Southern Blackberry Cobbler, and I had Caramel Turtle. (Carlos just got a bit from everyone.) While we were eating the ice cream, John David said that he got to eat two scoops of ice cream before lunch. JP and I just commented how that was their lunch. We figured that after two scoops of ice cream they were full enough to make it to The Woodlands.

Emma is 4 months

Time sure flies...especially when you are having fun. I know this is our fourth child, but it still
amazes me how quickly they grow up. She is soooo alert, she smiles, coos and of course cries. She can even sit up in her Bumbo. In the morning when she gets up she just lays in her crib and talks away. JP says she gets her chattiness from her mother. She is just so cute to listen to.
She is defininitely different from her brothers. We know every child is different, but we have to attribute some of her differences to gender. I don't remember the boys talking that much. Even Carlos doesn't talk as much as Emma. She also loves to be held, and at that in a particular way. She is definitely "la princesa." She definitley makes sure you know she is around, and that she gets plenty of attention. The boys were definitely more laid back than her.
It's a good thing she has three brothers that love paying attention to her. All of them will go up to her and talk to her and entertain her, so things can get done around the house.
It will definitely be interesting to see her little personality develop as she keeps growing.

Monkey See, Monkey Do

or should I say...Carlos see, Carlos do. He has become quite the little monkey. He is ready to do anything anyone else does. If Emma is laying on her mat or the bed, Carlos goes and lays next to her. If Sammy laughs at a video, Carlos laughs too. If John David is playing with a toy, Carlos wants to play with it too.
He may not have a vocabulary the general public may understand, but he definitely makes himself understood to us and his siblings. He has different sounds, tones, and inflexions to say and ask many things. And lets not forget his cute face that can be happy or pouty.
Today he kept going to the trash can, and trying to get things out. I told him no and pushed away his little hand. He walked to his daddy, who saw he was pouty. JP asked him what was wrong, and he made some noises and raised his hand and pushed it away the way I did. It was quite cute to see him tell his side of the story.

School Supplies

It's hard to believe that John David will start school in less than 3 weeks. Yesterday I was looking at backpacks online with him. He picked out a green backpack....big surprise. I still have some of his school supplies to buy...so I figured that I should hit the stores this week, before supplies dwindle, and definitely to avoid tax free weekend madness.
I can only guess that they will be having lots of art time. Why else would he need 16 glue sticks? They have some other random supplies on his list 100 6" paper plates, and 100 brown lunch bags. Once again more crafting comes to mind. Of course the traditional Crayola crayons and markers, #2 pencils, pencil box, Elmer's glue and tissues are also in the list. Somethings never change.
Thanks to his Grandma, and Abuelita his wardrobe is all set, we just need to get him a pair of tennis shoes. I'm sure I will blog about that experience, so check back in soon!

Grandparents

Grandparents are an interesting phenomenon. You probably are asking yourself what? But how is it that kids can walk into a room of strangers and feel most comfortable with grandparents? It doesn't even have to be their own grandparents. It is almost like grandparents are grandparents to all children. For example this evening we went to Renato and Tina's house for a mass with Fr. Tommy. Mr. and Mrs. Fragale where there at the house, and soon after mass was over, they were playing with our boys, and the other children that were there as well. My kids have only seen the Fragales a couple of times, but they felt quite comfortable with them. By watching the kids play you would have thought that they knew the Fragales pretty well. The Fragales just had their granchildren from Florida for almost a month. We even asked if they needed a break. She answered that after a week without Guga, Yara, and Giampaolo she was missing the excitement, and was ready to play with kids.
This same phenomenon occurred earlier this spring at Mamta's baby shower, where the kids played with the Accapadi and Motwani grandparents. I guess a grandparent's love is so strong that it radiates to all other children. So grandparents beware...there are lots of grandchildren to love, especially if you are around our family!

Kids miss mommy

Well at least John David. Last night he asked me if I was going to stay home tomorrow. I said yes. He said I needed to wash his clothes because he only had three shorts left. I told him daddy had already washed his clothes. He then asked, where are they. I told him, he could help me put them today. So this morning at 7:30 we were folding clothes.