Our Weekend

I cannot believe I have not had the chance to write about our last weekend and now we are half way through to the next weekend.

Anyway, well, on Saturday we woke up early to go to a birthday party. We had to be there at 930am. Isn't that odd? How many kiddie parties have you been to at 9 in the morning? Exactly!

Anyway, we had to be there because it was at a movie theater (which I found to be a cool but very expensive idea) and the movie (Bolt) started at 10am. We got there on time, by the grace of God, which was great because we had to leave early and it just would not look good to arrive late and leave early. We only got to see the beginning of the movie and we actually want to rent it and have "Nemi" (meaning us) finish watch it because it was actually quite good. After that, I had to head to work and that was basically it.

Sunday was beautiful Eowyn's dedication and we went to support our friends and be there for them.

Then we did laundry and (here comes the best part of our day) we went to visit our friends The Hestermans and let me tell you, you all have to go check out their home. They are doing such a great job at making that house a home. Ryan was in the middle of finish the deck out back... literally, he was putting up the railings and all the pieces to go on it (what ever all that man stuff is that is needed for construction) and we just sat on the 3/4 way done deck and enjoyed the warm afternoon. Nemi insisted on throwing toys and the bumbo down the steps and no time-out or threats of spanking worked to get him to stop, which was quite embarrassing. Lily was happy playing in her house until Nemi taught her how to jump out the window (this just sounds crazy). Jacob and Kimberlee hung out with the mommies and it was just the most beautiful time. You know when you do nothing to pass the time and it seems like it was the best use of your time ever... that was our Sunday afternoon. One of those afternoons you read about in some eloquent article or a feel good book. It really was the highlight of our crazy day.

Spring has Sprung

This weekend was wonderful. First and foremost because the weather was amazing. Finally, some sun and much needed heat. hip hip hooray!!!

About two weeks ago, Nemi and I planted our seeds (cilantro, spearmint, basil, scallions, and oregano). Some of the pots are clearly labeled and others are not (good job, Mom). This week we noticed that some of the seeds are starting to grow, yippee - only that we do not know what it is because it has no label (good job, Mom) - so we have yet to see what those are. Today we noticed that the cilantro is sprouting (labels, Yes!!). I am so excited. I called Nemi over and together we counted to sproutlings (whatever) and gave each other a high five. Last year I had no luck with my attempts to have fresh herbs in the house, but hopefully this year Nemi will be my lucky charm. Well, sort of, behind the scenes my friends Lori and Leah get most of the credit because they told me when, and where and how to plant my seeds. Believe me when I tell you that I am not very good with gardening, so I take in all the help I can get. At the end of the day we will see if I could maintain what has begun. If so, here is my plan. To make:
Homemade spaghetti sauce with fresh basil and oregano
Homemade sofrito with fresh cilantro
Kimani's secret BBQ sauce with fresh scallions
Loads of mint tea - maybe even some minted lebana (wrong spelling, but it is an Arabic dip- delish!) - Amin and Cindy I need your guidance here.

Well, we are all looking forward to it. I just hope I do not drown nor dry out the pots. Will keep you posted.

Ok on to the weekend. On Saturday we headed out for a walk to a near by walking area - Park Lake - and at first Kimani wanted to go around three times (yeah, right - we bearly made it once around). 3/4 of the way Nemi encounters the playground and yada yada yada we had a blast on the playground/beach.

Sunday was fun because I was sore from our walk at Park Lake, but I really wanted to go to the Cherry Blossom Festival in Newark. I have been wanting to go for years. So after church, we met up with Marisol who drove us as close to the event as she possibly could and after fighting to get a parking we finally made it to the park. Wow! I had never been there and though we found out later that last week the trees were in full bloom it was still a nice time. There was activities for the kids galore: face painting, decorate your own kite (that was cool), Turtleback Zoo petting zoo area, sand art station, and just all kinds of different things. The best part was the hot dog we bought. It was about 12 or 13 inches long. HUGE! Literally Kimani, Nemi, and I all ate from the one we bought. Huge!

Nemi's School Project

Nehemiah was given a school project back in March to read four books on sports and fill out a quick form regarding the story and they would get to go to a baseball game for free, with a picnic and a parade.

Easy, right?

The project was due today, April 15th.

Great, I have some time to do it.

Well, Mommy waited until yesterday (the 14th) to do this little project... of course.

I literally ran to the library, 25 minutes before having to be at the school to pick him up mind you; finally got my library card; told the librarian to give me any 4 books on sports and ran off to school for a meeting.

Later on that night, right before putting him to bed mind you, I am literally speed reading through the books and filling out the forms.

Sheesh!! I certainly hope Nehemiah does not pick up on my bad habits of procrastination.

Well, the good thing is that we got the project in on time and we will all get to go out on a family night to a baseball game, attend a picnic and participate in a parade. I hope it was all worth it.

Sweet Sleep

my Kimberlee slept through the night two nights ago and again last night. She will be 3 months tomorrow and is doing great. I am so excited she slept all night. Though I woke up in pain and engorged, I did not mind. I had my sleep.

I love it, Nemi was a good sleeper as well. Love my kids - and my hubby. They are amazing.

Easter Weekend 2009

We had a great Easter weekend. Again, I cannot upload any photos to share with you, but at some point or other I will.

So Saturday we went to upstate New York to visit my family. It was my second cousin's 5th birthday. We had such a great time hanging out with everyone. We were the first ones to arrive, and we loved that because we got to reconnect and catch up. I had not been up there since last year and we really missed them. Well, when the time came for the piñata all the kids got a turn. Nemi did not put the blinders on because he just does not tolerate anything on his face, but let me tell you he swung at that piñata quite hard and with determination to get the treats. Once the birthday boy broke the piñata and the candy flew out he was done, well, i should say in heaven. He filled his pockets, he filled his daddy's pockets, he had so much candy we had to scatter and hide it. It was just too much. He had a great time with his cousins and the food (of course) was exquisite.

On Sunday, we went up to church and after that we headed to the Bronx to spend Easter with Tony and his family. We were tired from Saturday, but it was important to us to go because it was our first Easter with them. It was such a blessing that we went. We enjoyed ourselves so much we almost did not want to leave. It was already 9pm and we were still trying to get out of the house. It was way too late for both the kids, but if they had had a spare room, we would've definitely stayed the night.

Being at Tony's house for Easter was exceptionally special. We love how engaging they are and welcoming. Tony hurried in the kitchen to spend time with his grand-daughter, unfortunately she screamed her head off when he would take her. I told him she does that with Kimani as well, not to take it personal... she only wants me most of the time. I did want him to hold her so I would feed her and give her to him to burp, thinking, now she is fed, she will not scream - but no she would scream. Ok, let me change her diaper and she will be fine.... nope she would scream. Oh! ok so let her fall asleep on my shoulder and then you can take her, she will be fine then... yeah! for about a minute. He begins to kiss her and she wakes up screaming - - sorry I tried. We are gonna have to wait a few months. He loves his grand-daughter. He got her the most beautiful dress for her dedication. Cannot wait for her to wear it.

Anyway, with all the family activities this weekend we did not get to do the egg hunt here at the house for Nemi. In hindsight, we did have time, but we wanted to make sure we were not late to go to the Bronx, so we skipped the egg hunt and decided to do it Monday. It was a lot of fun because we did it inside the house and Nemi was entertained for a while looking for all the eggs. He stopped hunting when he found the one with all the candy. All the other eggs had stickers, tattoos, compressed towels (the ones you put in water and they expand), bubbles, etc [most of it thanks to the M&M Bunny Trail giveaways]. Instead of a basket he had a pail with a shovel attached to it. I told Kimani that there were only pink baskets and with the pail he is now all set for the beach and the rest of the summer.

We also had a great time in prayer as we drove to Upstate NY and to the Bronx and back. The Lord is giving us an opportunity to be open and honest with all the things going on in our lives and to dedicate ourselves in prayer for each other and our marriage.

Nemi-isms

Nemi has been announcing everything that goes on regarding his body. If he bumps into something he will say, "I got an ouchie - my elbow (or where ever)".

Lately he also announces his contribution to the environment. When he passes gas he will say, "I farted."
I say, "oh Ok, say excuse me."
he says, "out my butt!"
"ok Nemi, we get it. Say excuse me"
"'cuse me!"

It cracks me up. I just hope he does not go into so much detail when we are out. I do not think other people will find it as cute as we do.

Nemi's Slang

I was helping Nehemiah clean up his room and at one point I dropped something and said, "oops! my bad!". He of course repeated what I said and I found it quite cute.

Well, that was about three weeks ago and even today he would drop something or mess up on an alphabet letter or something and say, "oops, my bad!"

My boy. He is so funny. How much I love him.

More pictures

House For Sale - Again

ok so that house that I have been keeping an eye of for the past two years is back on the market. Crazy, right?

Yeah! so I guess they should have worked with us when we asked them to let us rent it with an option to buy. Oh! well, I guess they really want to just sell it our right, which of course makes sense. One day we will own a home and I cannot wait to finally settle in to a place of our own. I want to have a little garden to grow my herbs.

Speaking of growing herbs I just remembered that I bought the things I need to grow... or should I say ATTEMPT to grow a few herbs this season. I got oregano, cilantro, spearmint (for teas), basil and something else I cannot remember. I should have Nemi help me plant the seeds that would be a fun activity.

Well, let us see if we could get that green thumb this time around. Wish me luck.

Kimberlee's First Photo Shoot

Sunday we went to our friend's house (Amin and Cindy) and Cindy is an awesome photographer. She took my pregnancy pictures when I was pregnant with Nemi and most of the ones of Nemi in his first year. I love her pictures and as a matter of fact we were noticing that two of her pictures made it to national television via A Baby Story.

So she and her hubby set up a makeshift photo studio in her basement for the first ever photo shoot. They improvised a lot, but let me tell you it all paid off. The pictures of Kimberlee were awesome. We would have taken more pictures if it was not so late in the night. It was past 9pm and Kimberlee was way past her bed time. She gave us a few smiles, but the truth is that it was quite a long day and she was pooped, she was a trooper to allow us the few pics we took.

I am so excited to going back and doing more pictures of the kids and even family shots.

Nehemiah's Independence

Wow so as moms we want to see our little ones reach and master the typical milestones and become independent, right? so why do I feel sad and happy when my Nemi finally masters something. I am so proud of him.

At times I feel guilty for doing so much for Nemi. Though for certain things I encourage him to do for himself, there are other things that I just could not fully surrender and let him have a go. Things like feeding himself and bathroom runs.

With the feeding I felt like he just would never eat if it were up to him. He would not sit and feed himself, though he could, he would always be interested in something else. Like every other child. So finally, I had to give up control and let him eat as much or as little as he wanted when he was ready to eat without ending up in me feeding him. Funny thing is that now he sits there and feeds himself most of not all of the food. Things that make you go hmm.

As for the bathroom thing - for a long time it was more because he would not communicate his need and I really did not want to deal with the mess in the bathroom. Funny enough (again) he now goes to the bathroom and actually stands there and aims and goes and .... I mean WOW! I was so amazed when I first saw him. Kimani did such a good job teaching him and I never knew because I always took him and did it all for him.

What kinds of things does Nehemiah do for himself by himself now:
Dresses himself: undies, socks, pants, and for the most part the shirt and even his coat.
Feeds himself: hot foods (he actually blows it), cold cereal, pours his own drinks
Bathroom runs: he does not always tell us when he has to go so sometimes he goes by himself all together, at times he tells us and other he just has accidents - I have accepted that as part of life and one day the accidents will stop.

I guess the next set of things is for him to is:
read his name and Mom and Dad
write his first and last name
bathe himself - I am sure he could do it now if I let him, but I am afraid he will 'forget' body parts so I always do it for him.

M&M Mars Easter Bunny Trail

So I had been looking forward to going to the M&M Mars Easter Bunny Trail this year since it is our "kick off" to a fun-filled summer.

I had given the kids a bath the night before so that it would make the morning go smoother. It paid off since we got there like 10 after 9, which was quite an impressive accomplishment. Only 10 minutes late. I aimed to arrive at 9am thinking we would actually get there at about 10am, but hey, I will take 10 minutes late over one hour.

Kimberlee wore her cousin's yellow dress with the yellow hat. She looked too cute and she was quite warm with all the layers I put on her. Nehemiah wore jeans and a red shirt. He looked super cute too. I wanted them to dress in M&M colors (corny, right?). Kimani wore a yellow shirt to match his daughter and I was the odd ball in white and light green.

When we got there the line was already quite long. We were told that since Mars was not sure if it was gonna pour down rain or not, they decided to just set up tables and distribute the candy to the children and skip the hunt. We got so much candy I felt like it was Halloween and we should have been saying, "Trick or Treat".

We were excited to just be there. We took pictures with the Red and Yellow M&M characters. We did not have the heart to take Kimberlee out of her car seat because it was windy and it seemed like it got colder as time went by. The Easter bunny came out when we were leaving, but we decided to skip it.

In total we were there for about an hour and we wished the weather had cooperated and we could have stayed longer and taken more pictures, maybe next year.

It was a beautiful drive up and back that allowed for some nice conversation and I think we both feel that it was definitely worth it because that is the reason for these outings; for us all to reconnect and spend quality time together.

This weekend coming up I am going to do an egg hunt with Nehemiah here in the house/complex (if the weather permits) and that will be our Easter. Looking forward to more memories this summer.

Paint Sample

So today I painted a small portion of the living room wall to test out the color we picked out. Elegant Yellow (SW 6666 from Sherwin Williams).

The day is a bit overcast today, but I am glad we get to see the color on the wall with natural light. So far I like it so lets see how Kimani likes it when he gets home.

Hopefully the sun will come out tomorrow and we will get to see the color with the sunlight as well before we do the entire living room.

I am so looking forward to the final look.