So, tonight we decided (albeit very last minute) to go to the tuesday night practice that some Aztec dancers hold at Southside Park… It was great! We invited Diego’s friends and Jacob and him just danced their hearts out, and yes, we missed Savanna!…
cool to see, cool to film (see my version of the events with the video below…)
Dear Friends and Family,
Life has been busy for us lately. We haven’t posted much because we have been living like there is no tomorrow; but it has been all great as Diego continues to grow into his own. He looks more and more like a mix of both Bets and I. We took a trip recently to see our friends in Texas and had a blast… it was fantastic to see them and take Diego to them; he still wants to see Josie everyday! our friends were (as always) the best anyone would wish to have!
We have a trip coming up to Indiana for Tia Ellen’s wedding and of course we have a couple of short trips coming up in July and August and October… As you can see, having Diego has added to our social life; but the best part of it all is that Diego loves traveling and meeting new people so it is incredibly satisfying to be busy.
A couple of days ago Bets shared a blog posting with me about new baby and older sister and how hard it can be for both the mom and kid(s) and I realized that I MAY NOT BE PREPARED for the emotional roller coaster that having a new kid will be for our little Diego. Up until now (on the onset of his second birthday) he has been our world, and everything we do and plan and our lifestyle is centered around him. This is what I told Betsy:
It will be different for him, maybe a bit harder or maybe not… no one ever knows. All we can do is hug him, kiss him and tell him we will always love him. He will need us more than ever, and we will be there for him. Please, know that I will do everything possible to be there for him and Enzo at the same time, Diego may need us more than ever, but I am sure he will adjust beautifully. We have to instill in him love for his brother while at the same time love him as well… that’s some of what we can do; I am sure we will think of other things to help him cope…
The question is: will I be able to do it without a major emotional breakdown? I hope so, I want to be there for my kids and hope to be strong enough to be supportive for all: My lovely wife, Diego and Enzo.
So, yes, he will be a baby boy and his name will be Lorenzo Javier; shortened to Enzo… enough said.
We continue to build fantastic bonds with other parents with children close to Diego’s age and have come to realize how wonderful life is to grow up with people close to you, so we want to say to Stephanie, Gordon and Savanna (Vanie); Jennifer, Tim and Jacob; Stacy, Scott and Kyan: Thanks for being in our kid’s life.
Lastly, our wedding anniversary is coming up next week, and frankly I am at a lost for what to do for Bets; I love her even more every day and am glad to have married her. It was the best decision I have ever made in my life. It is not that I can’t think of anything to give her or anywhere to take her out; but the truth is that nothing I could do will ever convey how much I love her so I feel that giving her anything that doesn’t truly reflect the depth of feelings I have for her is not enough… any ideas? (feel free to post on my Facebook page if you do!)
Thanks friends, family and the occasional lurker for reading… writing this has cleared my head, giving a feeling of accomplishment and most importantly it has made me look forward to lifetime with my family….
We have updated our Photo Gallery and if you need to download them, they are available in flickr.
A few portraits of Diego with his friends!
Since returning from our amazing trip in Oregon and Washington (that I’m sure you all read about in Marco’s posts), we have been ravaged by a continuous onslaught of evil and I mean EVIL viruses that have undoubtedly come from Diego’s daycare. It began with our first day back at “school” (as we like to call it). Before we had even entered the front door, one of the mothers stopped us to tell us about the 72 hour stomach flu that had knocked out just about every family at one time or another during our absence. Unphased (yet), we walked on only to be assaulted with horror stories by a Dad in the foyer and another Mom in the 2 year old room. Marco and I stopped at that point, bent our heads together and had a quiet parent-parent conference. Should we leave our healthy son to this? Marco was leaving for Mac World that following day and I would be solo parenting for 4 days in his absence. Could I cope with 72 hours of vomiting and diarrhea by myself, knowing that I likely would succumb to the virus soon after Diego did? Did we want to risk it? It sounded from the stories like most of the young children had already had the virus and recovered so we decided to keep Diego home one more day and hope that somehow we could avoid it. Tuesday came and went – no sign of sickness. Wednesday morning was still very promising. Wednesday night Diego spiked a fever and threw up once but then seemed fine – had we dodged the bullet? Diego wasn’t eating much in the evening – but this might just be picky eating, right? Thursday and Friday day – uneventful…. At this point I was feeling positively giddy. We might just have make it! I am usually religious and slightly obsessed with reading Diego’s little progress note at the end of every day at daycare but this Friday evening was special and I neglected to even glance at the sheet. We were off to San Francisco to meet Daddy and spend a family day in the city. I was REALLY looking forward to it. San Francisco is one of my favorite cities and we had not spent any time there since Marco and I first began dating.
As I drove west on I-80, I marveled at how little traffic there was. I was cruising at 65 mph with no slowdowns, not even in Fairfield! I kept passing the signs that said it would still take me 90 then 69 minutes to downtown but I didn’t believe it, traffic was flying! Until…… Berkeley. All of a sudden 65 mph turned into 5 mph, then 3 mph. It took me 1 hour to drive from Berkeley to the Marriott at the convention center. Did I mention that I hadn’t stopped for dinner because Diego fell asleep around Davis? Well, he woke up when we got to Berkeley and I had been passing crackers and raisins and grapes to the backseat for eons and he was getting cranky. We finally made it to the hotel at 7:45 (left Sac at 5:15) and scurried down to a nearby Mexican restaurant to get some food in Diego. Did he eat? Of course not and wouldn’t even sit in his highchair for a minute. Marco and I ended up trading off – one eating hurriedly while the other ran around the courtyard with Diego. This was NOT how I envisioned our 24 hour mini vacation in the city. Back at the hotel we gave Diego his bath and put him to bed. Miraculously, he slept all night despite being in the Pack ‘n’ Play. The morning, however, was not so sunny. Diego had profuse diarrhea and was clutching his stomach and crying unconsolably. Although we had an impressive arsenal of pediatric medicinals in the diaper bag, none were GI appropriate and he was only getting worse. At this point it was only 6am. What could we do now? The only thing that might give him so relief was gripe water and Whole Foods didn’t open for another hour. Should we hightail it for home! Crap! (No pun intended, seriously…) We elected to pick up some coffee at Peet’s, wait for Whole Foods to open, buy some gripe water and then head back home. I was feeling not-so-great myself and was at that point where I needed to eat something NOW or I was going to be following in Diego’s footsteps.
I’ll spare you the details beyond saying that it took Diego 72 hours me slightly over 24 hours to recover.
Three days later Marco came down with a cough and cold. Two days later Diego woke up with pink eye. Two days after that I drove up to Tahoe to speak at the Lake Tahoe Equine Conference (talk was great fun and enjoyed my less-than-24-hours there). While I was in Tahoe, Diego was coughing like crazy, wheezing and spiking low grade fevers. Next day we took him in and he was given nebulized albuterol (for those of you who haven’t had the pleasure – that’s tantamount to waterboarding if you are an 18 month old) and he was diagnosed with RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) via throat swab (also torture though less traumatic since overwith so quickly). Next day (yesterday) Marco wakes up with his eyes glued shut – more pinkeye-I wake up with a sore throat and congestion, and Diego’s pinkeye recrudesces. Seriously?
If you are wondering when it gets better – not to fear – Diego is no longer wheezing and Marco’s eyes are slightly less red and swollen. I haven’t given Diego any Albuterol for 12 hours so he is actually taking a nap! (Toddlers on albuterol are WIRED, BTW). We are determined to re-enter the land-of–the-living today no matter what. Some how we have managed to maintain some semblance of good humor despite our exhaustion and are looking forward to a healthy week ahead.
Oh yeah, and Diego’s getting his second set of tubes in his ears after 2 nearly back-to-back ear infections amidst the rest of this crap. (I’m pretty sure Diego can say “crap” now along with “dude” and some other aberrations of the English and Spanish languages). Lovely.
-by Betsy
So, we are back from our road trip to Sandy and Snohomish (OR, WA). Visiting friends was a great way to spend the holidays (of course Christmas was spent cooking at home for all our family) and traveling was not what I expect it to be with a toddler. Diego was incredible, and not because he is my kid, but really did not cried or fuss about sitting down for extended periods of time. As I mentioned before, on the way up we stopped twice, and he read, sang, listen to music, or read books the entire time. And on the way back he was even more amiable, which included his sudden socializing surge: he said hi and goodbye to everyone we saw (even if they were total strangers!) It was a sight to behold. Also, he began to dance rhythmically, probably genetic but amazingly early in life! And lastly he demonstrated that he has an ear for tunes and melodies while visiting Betsy’s cousin in Corvallis.
So let me begin, Diego got a John Deere tractor and his first set of Legos from us (we can’t tell him it is from Santa because he freaks out!) Nana gave him a horse, and most of all he truly enjoyed his real leather horse riding chaps and vest he got from his niece Ashley. A belated gift came from Chito (Carlos) and Grandma DiDi (Diane) and he can be seen riding it… a hand made rocking horse… he loved it !
Next we took off to Sandy Oregon and visited with Carlos and Diage… and went to Timberline Lodge, by Mount Hood where Diego enjoyed for the first time snow! He had the most fun when we returned on our way back from Seattle back to Sandy, and a few inches of snow fell at the Cabin. Of course I could not leave without having to shovel some of it myself!
While in Snowhomish, WA; Diego relaxed while hanging out with Jack the dog… at one point Diego began to hug him in the most gentle way a kid could… impressive! 
but Jack is like a saint type of dog and reciprocated the love… by eating Diego’s cookie! We enjoyed the visit with all of our friends and look forward to seeing them again in 2009!
On the way back, we stopped to visit Betsy’s cousin Lucy, a music teacher. She loved Diego, and of course Diego had to try the piano… note the good posture, the happiness from playing the piano and of course the reaching for the far out keys! I also noted that he liked the metronome, and keyed the piano to it’s beat!
Lastly, Diego learned to talk! He is starting to try to have a conversation and sing on his own… gibberish but beautiful tones to my ears!
Friends and Family: Betsy, Diego and I wish you all a wonderful 2009!
Recent Photos
