Month 4

This little guy turned 4 months yesterday!

He is still as serious as ever - for the most part - although he has started cracking a smile here and there. Except at bath, he is quite ticklish, so at bath time he is all giggles! Big giggles!

He is quite aware of all his surroundings. He follows people across a room - it is pretty neat to watch him turn his little head as his target moves. He has started reaching out for things and quite often is he able to grab and hold on to his rattle, or stuffed friend, or blanket. He is quite strong and won't let go of easily!

He is a champ at falling asleep by himself. He is still not fan of the pacie, but has since discovered his three middle fingers. So he sucks them and goes to sleep - quite often all on his own. Very seldom do we have to rock him to sleep. I am pretty sure that with Benjamin we were still doing the 5 S's come 4 months.... And speaking of sleeping, he is still sleeping all night! An average of 12 hours, he looks quite chunky so I don't think he is missing out by not getting that midnight feeding. No complaining from this end!

He is not a fan of baby wearing... which is disappointing (and inconvenient), but I keep trying to see if maybe one time he will last in the carrier for more than the squirming 20 minutes I usually get.

Total Eclipse

It is so amazing when a plan comes together last minute - things always seem to work out. As an event planner, I cringe when we don't have a plan, but deep down inside I always know that with or without a plan things are moving forward and we just better go with it in the moment to make them happen.

The plan for Eclipse Day was:
I was going to experience the Eclipse with Natasha and her girls in Columbia
Norm was going to work
Michelle and Juan Ma were going to be in Savannah

As of about 48 hours ago:
I had a conference call scheduled for 11:30am so I wasn't able to go to Columbia.
Michelle and Juan's trip to Savannah got cancelled because whoever Juan was meeting with cancelled (she probably realized it was Eclipse Day and was not going to stick around for a 2pm appointment)

And as of this morning:
Norm was getting out from work at 1pm.

So after multiple texts throughout this morning, we came up with an alternate plan to drive up to McCormick, SC - where they were going to have totality - for the Eclipse. Augusta was 99.9%, however, that .01% is quite significant, so we decided to make the 40 mile drive.

Benji stayed at school and the rest of us, including Nico, piled into my car and we took off. We weren't exactly sure where we were going... we were just driving up to McCormick. As we got closer, Michelle discovered that there was a county airport nearby... so that's where we ended up.

No crowds. No traffic. Just us 5, a broken down car, two propeller airplanes and two other families.

We got there about 1:40pm and immediately put on our glasses and started looking up at the sun.

I fed Nico... because even though he now eats every 3.5 hours or so, it seems like he is always eating...

Then we changed his diaper and I got an ant bite

At about 2:20pm, a huge dark cloud went by so we just waited... surely it was going to get out of the way by 2:40pm....

As 2:40pm approached, everything around us changed. I do not know how to describe it because I've never experienced anything like it to compare it to... not only did the sky started getting darker, but it was a weird sort of light... almost like twilight, almost like dusk, sort of hazy, sort of reddish. The breeze picked up, the temperature dropped, the crickets started chirping, the cows mooed and the roosters crowed. We just tried to capture it as much as possible. Meanwhile through our special glasses, the sun kept getting smaller and smaller as the moon took over.

Disclaimer - we put glasses on him for fun.
He stayed in the shade - facing opposite from
the sun

And suddenly the moon was directly in front of the sun, we were able to take our glasses off and admire nature in its entirety. It was unbelievable, the ring of light around the moon was perfect. 

In what seemed to be nowhere near long enough, the sun got super bright again and it was time to put on our glasses back on. As soon as the temperature started rising, we got in the car and headed back. 

Yes - all of our necks will be sore tomorrow. Time to go take some Motrin and do some neck stretches. 

Been Happening

Life moves fast with two little boys, a dog and both Norm and I working full time. In brief, this is what's been happening over the past - who knows... month? months? These are in no particular order...

Benjamin has taken to washing the dishes. He has also discovered that the possibilities are endless when he brings the chair from the dining room to the kitchen counter - until of course, Mami or Daddy Norm catch him pulling all of the silverware out of the drawer and then the fun is over.

Benjamin has been playing pretend a whole lot - here he is pretending to feed soup to Nico. Nico seems to enjoy it... he kept licking the spoon.

Juan Ma has been in town, taking a break before heading back to his senior year at NYU. Senior. Year. #isheoldorarewe

Nico is just cutest as ever!

He found "his tools" at Michelle's house and decided to clean up the kitchen. Gloves and all. 

Yard work is an integral part of our lives and we enjoy it, so we don't mind it. Neither does Benji. Especially when it involves dirt, power tools and water!

Nico sat on the green chair for the first time - he really likes it!

Nico started going to his school! He really likes that too!

Until one day when he ran a fever for about 24 hours... we were all miserable. Thankfully it was nothing.

Benji got to wear his firefighter rain jacket to school. He was so excited!

My mom and Pablo have been in China for what feels like 42 days.

Benjamin found a chuyo (that's what we call the knitted hats with the ear coverings in Peru), he put it on and said "Ho ho ho. It's Christmastime! Go find presents"

Practicing Camping

It's not a shocker to state the fact that neither Norm nor I are outdoorsy in the sense of camping and hiking and all that. We are, however, outdoorsy in the sense of sitting outside drinking a beer or doing yardwork...

We are going to the beach in two weeks and due to the limited cargo space, we are only going to be able to take one pack-and-play, therefore, we are going to have to get creative on how/where Benjamin sleeps. As we were wandering through Aldi the other day, we picked up a sleeping back for a ridiculously cheap price, with the thought that Benji could sleep in it when we go to the beach...

Norm and Benjamin went "camping" the other day in the office... they got the sleeping bag out and did fun things like read books with flashlight and stay up waaaaaaaaaaaay past everyone's bed time.

The sleeping inside the sleeping bag only lasted but a minute, since this is what I found in the morning:

Yesterday morning we got the sleeping bag out again (more practice) while we were being lazy watching Saturday morning cartoons... 

That night, because it was the "weekend" (concept that we are starting to introduce to Benjamin...), he camped out in our room... besides me sitting on the rocker waiting for him to fall asleep and not wander about the room (as he attempted multiple times), sleeping in the sleeping bag was a success!

We have one more weekend to practice before the real thing!