Abu and Abuelita Visit St. Louis

Abu and Abuelita recently visited us in our new digs. We took them to school with us, where Joaquin taught Abu to read. We celebrated Abu's birthday and we took them to the Magic House, which Abu thought was a hair raising experience. We also took them to eat frozen custard.

A pair of monkeys

Today was a super gorgeous day here in St. Louis. So mama took us to the zoo instead of watching us ride our bikes in circles around the cul-de-sac. The St. Louis Zoo is awesome and, dare I might say, even better than the National Zoo in DC (I'm pretty sure that I just heard a collective gasp of indignation from all our fans in DC).

Here I am riding a caterpillar (I swear that's what it is) on the carousel. And there I am with Joaquin in front of the penguin house. We may look angry but we are just fending off the bad smell issuing forth from the penguin house.

Stay tuned for more adventures in St. Louis...or the Lou as some people here call it. Which makes it sound like it should be as stinky as that penguin house. But it's not. So come visit!

Wrestlemania

Here I am teaching Joaquin how to hold his own against the big boys at the World Wrestling Federation.

We do this about 20 times a day, which is what I believe leads Mama to talk about her Zen moments, like the following:

A New City, a New Year and a New (Blog) Name

Hey everyone!  Remember me? I wouldn't blame you if you didn't...I've been pretty silent for quite some time.  But, then again, I would blame you because I'm just so darn unforgettable.  Anyhow, I just wanted to let you know that our blog name is changing.  Sebastian and Joaquin's Crazy Mexican Life will be taking a decidedly domestic change of direction- a Midwestern one in fact! The pictures below are a trailer of sorts...of what is to come in the following months as you tag along with us on our new adventures. So stay tuned to Sebastian and Joaquin's Crazy Midwestern Life.  And come visit!

I Am A Pizza

This song has topped the charts in our household! Hope that you enjoy it!

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Summer Shenanigans Part 1: The West Coast is the Best (or so says Mama)

Hey everyone! Look who is back! Did you miss me? What a silly question...of course you did! I pondered long and hard about my first post in oh...well, let's just say a very long time. And since a new school year just started, what better way to kick off my (hopefully) new streak of blogging with a look back on what we did this summer.

In late July we headed to Oregon to visit Mama's family and help Grandma celebrate a very special birthday. I won't say how old she turned but let's just say she's still very, very young. We met up with Tia Liz, Tio Amit, Zev and Hayden, who came all the way from Israel for the event; with Tio Eddie, Tia Stacy and their new baby, Alyssa; with Motorcycle Grandpa who came all the way from Washington State; and Grandma and Opa of course who came down from the Central Oregon Coast. We spent 4 nights at a yoga retreat, which my cousin Zev ingeniously labeled "The Hippie House!" Photos of (most) of the gang are below.

The Elusive Opa

The proud grandparents (and parents) with their first granddaughter

The boy cousins, from right to left: Yours Truly, Hayden, Zev and Joaquin

Joaquin, skinny dipping in the river

Tio Eddie, Tia Stacy and Alyssa

Tia Elizabeth with Alyssa

Daddy and me in the hot tub...too hot in the hot tub

Alyssa thinks that Joaquin is hysterical...just wait until he starts stealing her toys!

Daddy with his Michael Chiklis car...he thought that he was on the set of The Shield all week long!

After we departed from the hippie house, we headed on over to my great granddad's house...known to all as Grandad. Yes, we know it's spelled wrong but one can do such things with proper names. All of Mama's cousins...the maternal line that is...obliged by converging on Grandad's house for the weekend. It was hot, hot, hot...over 100 degrees each day...so we mostly just swam in the pool and lounged in the shade...very appropriate for the following cast of shady characters:

Cousin Jude...he was selling watermelon slices for $1 million bucks a piece....nobody was buying.

Tio Ben and his cool hat

Great-Grandma Rita holding her first great granddaughter...after nine great grandsons!

Tia Danielle and Tio Tyler...they are as cool as they look.

Tia Bernadette, Tio Jerrod, Noah and Micah

Two of these kids are not like the others.

Can you believe that only two people are missing from this shot?

Saying goodbye to Grandad's kitten, Earle...even Joaquin learned to say his name!

Micah and Joaquin...they were born only four days apart!

Noah and Hayden

Noah, Hayden and Yours Truly...we were all born within 6 months of each other!

Six of the nine boys in our generation..yeah, we're a good looking bunch.

We even were able to squeeze in a visit with Roy and Donna. You've heard of the term "home away from home." Well, they are like Mama's "parents away from parents."

And that concludes the first installment of Summer Shenanigans. Check back soon for Part Deux.

(Not So)Still Life with Boys- Part 2

Note to readers: You just have to suffer through one more sappy post from Mama and then we can go back to our semi-regularly scheduled programming: Me!

It's official. I am irrevocably outnumbered. Boys 3-Girl 1. Even if we decided to have a third child, which is not likely to happen, there will be no leveling of the playing field. So what does this mean?

February 2009

It means that I will likely never have a daughter with whom to do girly things. Sebastian likes to put on my lip gloss (something he'll probably adamantly deny in a future post) but the buck stops there. He steadfastly refuses to let me put his lovely locks into a pony tail, stating that "Mommy, colitas (pony tails) are for girls." And Joaquin is 100% boy.

March 2009

It means a lifetime of frogs, snails and puppy dog tails.

April 2009

It means fear of broken bones. Of my mother's three children, only my brother broke a bone during adolescence.

May 2009

It means watching whiskers sprout from their sweet baby faces.

June 1999

It means losing 2/3 of the most important men in my life to other women.

July 2009

It means that someday I will gain two daughters. And perhaps a granddaughter or two.

August 2009

It means watching them suffer silently through their first heartbreaks because, let's be honest here, most men don't like to talk about their deepest feelings, especially not with their mothers.

September 2009

It means countless wrestling matches (real and otherwise) on the living room floor.

October 2009

It means water balloons...lots of them...probably in my living room.

November 2009

It means having to say 100 billion times "stop harassing your brother" in a voice that sounds suspiciously like my own mother's voice.

December 2009

It means, also, watching them grow to be as good as friends as Carlos and his brothers have become as adults.

January 2010

It means smelly socks, muddy tennis shoes, dirty clothes strewn about and "who me?" looks on their faces when I yell about the house being a mess, again in my mother's voice (don't worry Mom, I mean this in the fondest way).

February 2010

It means telling them everyday to stop growing and stay exactly like this...and then standing by helplessly while they flagrantly disobey.

February 23, 2009 (Joaquin's first birthday)

But mostly it means sharing my life with these three men. And what woman wouldn't want that?