Boricua en la Lima

Tom and I were having lunch at Original Pancake House yesterday (yum) and I was talking to him about Gabi's newfound Star Wars obsession. He tipped me off to the iphone app Lightsaber so as soon as I got home last night I downloaded it. Gabi made me personalize it with a picture of her and she made me change her light color to PINK (she has to be girly while opening up a can of whoopass!). She had a blast with the application, and Sebastian was even trying to imitate the woosh woosh sound and moving his hands imitating the motion, it was histerical! Alex who I was babysitting was quite enjoying himself too...all of this of course led us to having to replay Episode VI for the millionth time and her going to sleep insanely late because the movie is so damn long. Anyway, I must take some video of this happening this weekend so I can post it on here, and I MUST buy Episodes I-III cause yesterday on the way to work she kept arguing with me (while we listened to Weird Al Yankovich

Ever since Gabi became old enough to be able to repeat everything we say, I figured it was no longer a good idea to play Howard Stern on the radio while she was in the car. That's when we discovered Kids Place Live on Sirius Satellite radio. There's one particular song that makes me smile every time I hear it, and I found the YouTube video earlier this afternoon. I know my friend Tom would really appreciate it. My only question is why hasn't it gone mainstream???

On Friday afternoon we went to Target to get Gabi some movies as a reward for sleeping in her room all night (it's been 4 days and she's slept through the whole night 3 out of the 4!). On Saturday night she snuck back into our bed around 2:30 am and we were too tired to do things the "right way" and take her back.   In any case, Jose convinced her to get Mary Poppins because he loved that movie as a kid.  I didn't think that was a good idea because personally I wasn't a big Mary Poppins fan when I was growing up.  I didn't like the "real people" Disney movies nearly as much as I liked the animated ones.  Also, for the duration of Friday night and Saturday during the day despite the fact that we had Mary Poppins on had Gabi insited on watching Star Wars!!! (she's a strange one indeed).  Finally on Saturday afternoon Jose convinces her to watch Mary Poppins by telling her it was Paloma's favorite movie.  OMG...what ensued!  She LOOOOOOOOOVE

I got us a babysitter for last night since they're pretty much impossible to find for the weekends. We went to Bootsy's in front of the Aranoff Center and it was really good, loved the food (especially churros for dessert!) and loved the place. Today I got an ice cream cake from Dunkin Donuts/Baskin Robbins. We first had an early dinner at Bonefish (which was PACKED because of it being a Lent Friday - we had no idea!) and then we went to Target to get Gabi the gifts we had promised her for being a good girl and sleeping in her bedroom all night last night (thanks to Jenny who babysat her!). Then once we got home and baby was asleep (I felt bad putting him to sleep before singing Happy Birthday to Jose but otherwise he would've had the ice cream for dinner for sure) we sang Happy Birthday (in Spanish AND English of course!) and then had the ice cream cake. Despite the fact that Gabi got Beauty and the Beast and Mary Poppins from Target, she STILL wants to watch Star Wars.

Someone let me know what the male version of a convent is because I'm sending this guy as quickly as possible...because clearly this isn't a good thing.

We had this training at work for the last two days which is all about managing your energy for full engagement at work. It basically talks about managing your Energy on 4 different levels (Physical, Emotional, Mental and Spiritual). While I had some "aha moments" regarding all levels of the pyramid, my key takeaway was this: I need to make some changes at work. I am not 100% happy at work right now and this is causing me to have stress levels that are unfortunately spilling over to my home life and affecting my interaction with the kids in particular. I get home at night and I'm exhausted, thinking about all the stuff I still have to do the next day and how I am ever going to find the time to do it all. I am short with the kids, particularly with Gabi who of course is struggling with finding her own voice and that can sometimes lead to what I call "Taurus syndrome" (two very strong heads butting together). I am also stressed out about all the things that ne

Bueno, bonito y barato. That's how us puerto ricans like to talk about things. There used to be a place up in Hamilton called Santo Domingo Restaurant, a pretty long trek for us but usually worth it. Mostly due to the bueno and the barato, because bonito it was not. Yesterday I was feeling in the mood for some mofongo so I called Santo Domingo as they usually asked you to place those kind of orders ahead of time to give them enough time to prepare. Then we would get there, proceed to eat like political prisoners and pay like $10 per person. However when I called yesterday I got a strange response. They answered as "The Green Plantain". While I had heard of this new offering in the Fairfield area I didn't know it had actually replaced Santo Domingo Restaurant. I was actually dubious when they told me, thinking they had stole Santo Domingo's number just to steal their clientele. However when we showed up at "The Green Plantain" I did recognize friendly f

After many months waiting Gabi finally started her swimming classes again this morning. Whereas last year I set outside the heated indoor pool sweating like a pig in a sauna, since I was 8 months pregnant, this year I am the one in the pool with Gabi since Jose is still recovering from shoulder surgery. But now this year we have to bring baby too which makes me feel bad for him because he really looks like he wants to be part of the action too. Maybe when Jose's shoulder is better Jose can hold him in the water. I've never seen the classes that full though. They needed three teachers to keep up with all the kids when it's usually only been one! They were pretty good with the kids though, so I think gabi will like them. We also saw some repeat parent-kid combos which was nice. For all my friends with little kids who want to do swimming lessons, I highly recommend the parent and child classes through the Cincinnati Recreation Commission (we go to the Mt. Auburn Pool which is