Boricua en la Lima

Have you tried the IHOP diet? by ZDNet 's Dana Blankenhorn -- A big breakfast, heavy on the carbs, will cut your cravings throughout the day so you can keep the weight off.

I've of course been pining for the new iPhone. Which of course has resulted in my husband saying "you got your iPhone less than a year ago, there's no way you're getting the new one, there's nothing wrong with yours". And I'm like but it's the new shiny toy! I want the new one because it's better and faster and let's face it, NEWER! But there's no way he'll allow it especially since now that I'm on maternity leave he's kinda the sole breadwinner of the house, on top of which we are nearly broke since we haven't sold the condo (yet) and we are about to start paying a second child's tuition at day care. Go figure how we can be broke with two people working but between day care and house payments and credit card debt and this stupid economy, and the fact that I'm on maternity leave and can therefore go to Kroger or Target practically every other day, well there we are, needing to pinch every penny. But the other da...

Have you checked out your library recently? If you haven't, I highly recommend it. It's truly your tax dollars at work. I first turned to the library about a year ago because of clutter and because I wanted Gabi to pick up her parents' love of reading. It all started with book clutter (both my husband and I love to read and have very different taste in books which means twice as many books) and quickly evolved to toy clutter as well. But we shall manage the toy issue separately. However, after running out of bookshelf space (even my two year old has run out of bookshelf space) I decided at least I wouldn't keep adding to the book clutter in the house. Plus books are so damn hard to carry when you're moving. My friend Mara was telling me her movers charged her more for her books than for her baby grand piano! Anyway, think of it as a Netflix for books, except for FREE! Well not exactly for free but at least you know where some of your tax dollars are going. But b...

...sucks, that's all I can say. I took my Mac to the Genius Bar a couple of days ago, an event which I always think is going to take 30 minutes but always ends up taking about 2 hours. Because of this I always try to "group" problems together, you know like with cars...wait until enough stuff is wrong with it that it actually merits a trip to the Genius Bar. In this case there are several things wrong with my Mac, and I'm not criticizing Mac at all. My Dell before the Mac died about a year after I bought it. I've had my Mac for 3 years and it's still alive and kicking. Which is not to say I'm not DYING to get a new one, the same way I'm DYING to replace my iPhone with the new one, to replace my old Murano with the new one, and to replace my video camera with one of those tiny ones that you plug directly into your computer and uploads video straight onto YouTube/Google Video. Anyone have one of those? My dad just got one for Father's Day and I'...

Well the first thing is I can't believe is that I made it in one piece...there and back. My first trip with the two kids, entirely by MYSELF. Which first made me realize my double stroller is not meant for just one person to be able to open and close by themselves, especially not a person with two young kids hanging on to them who's also trying to take off her shoes to check through the security line. Anyway, the weekend was so jammed packed with activities (and somehow relaxing at the same time which seems impossible) that I just had to recap everything we did: - Thursday: arrived at 10:30 am in LGA, made it to the house by about 1 pm, waited for Jake to arrive from the school bus around 4 pm and then we hung out at the beach until Geraldine arrived from work. Then we went to a great little pizza place by the water. - Friday: my sister made me walk 3 miles at 5:45 am. I then sent Jake off to school at 8 am, went crazy with the two kids until Jake got back from the bus around 4...

I'm sitting in the movie theatre with a baby stuck to my boob which is already odd to begin with. What seems even more odd is that my sister has had the brilliant idea of sneaking in a bottle of wine to the movie theatre and has given each of us a little styrofoam cup to drink it from. Now put the picture together of a breastfeeding mom with a styrofoam cup of wine and you've really got a strange picture at hand. We may not have dressed up to the nines for the ocassion, but that's a moment I will never forget. We BARELY made it to the movie on time, and I was so tired (which is my neverending state these days) that I almost wanted to not go to the movie. Getting my daughter and nephew with my brother in law into the movie theatre next to us to see Kung Fu Panda was the only thing we could think of to get away, but getting everyone to the movie theatre was no small feat. Three minutes later I'm being "Carried away" by the fashion and the drama. Two and a half h...

Warning: this blog entry is not for the faint of heart (i.e. has words like "poopy" and "pee" which might gross you out). The most amazing thing happened yesterday. As background, ever since Sebastian was born we've had problems having Gabi fall asleep on her own (she's been a darling otherwise so I really can't complain about this). So for nap time (which goes off without a hitch at day care but is a herculean task at home) I went to the guest bedroom with her so that Jose could stay with the baby in our bedroom (otherwise the baby can wake up Gabi when he cries). So Gabi and I are lying in bed and she's giving me the HARDEST time going to sleep -- she's talking to me, she's getting up to close the windows and the door and whatnot, she's moving pillows around, you know, those of you who are parents know they will do a thousand things when they don't want to go to sleep. After like half an hour she says "mommy I have to go pot...

Here's a video that irrefutably proves that Gabi is my daughter since she a) likes to sing but is not good at it and b) more importantly, she's a singer/songwriter since she likes to take popular songs (in this case the ABC's) and put her own lyrics. Enjoy! Oh, and sorry you are going to have to tilt your head 90 degrees to the left but my sister in law didn't know that with my camera you have to videotape in "portrait" not "landscape".

Sebastian started vomiting a fair amount in the last couple of days. Jose was freaking out and I was trying to be calm about it, but after a HUGE incident this morning I decided to take him to the doctor. Turns out he has acid reflux, but I am relieved that it's not something worse like pyloric stenosis which actually requires surgery (my nephew had to get surgery when he was very young - 6 weeks or so).

Of course I thought I'd be able to write a lot more than I have, because in my mind I always have more time than I actually do. But I just wanted to update you guys on how I've been! Although first of all I want to ask Lety to give us all the details of her new job!!!! You might notice this blog entry is peppered with introspection about my "strengths" and "weaknesses" - this is a result of my immersion with Marc Buckingham that I've been dying to apply to my work life, but since I'm not going back to work until August 1st (thank god!) I have to apply to my home life for now...so please forgive me for the self-indulgence. Anyway, things have been OK, although Patty left yesterday and she was such an IMMENSE help that I was actually emotionally blackmailing her for a while to stay longer with us, and it was actually starting to work. But then I sort of felt guilty because I knew she wanted to go home, and I also said to myself, eventually I'm goin...

Here are a few of Sebastian's firsts along with a picture of his first bath: Born: 4/9/08 Went home: 4/12/08 First EARTHQUAKE!!! 4/18/08 Umbilical chord fell off: 4/20/08 First bath: 4/21/08 First airpline ride: 6/12/08 (from Dayton, OH to Branford, CT) First movie: 6/15/08 (Sex and the City - please don't call Child Services!) "Army crawl": October 2008 First tooth: early February 2009 Saying "uh oh": early February 2009 Can hold up his own bottle: early February 2009

This is the son of a very good friend of my sister's. He has been in and out of hospitals since he was born. His brave older sister (4 years old) will be donating bone marrow and is really proud of her role in helping her younger brother. You can either donate money by getting below cost magazine subscriptions (1st part) or make a monetary donation (2nd part). Derek Michael is a six-months-old baby, who at his tender age, is to undergo a bone marrow transplant due to his condition of Kostmann disease or severe congenital neutropenia, a rare condition affecting only one or two persons per million. Please help Comite de Apoyo Derek Michael fundraise by treating yourself to your favorite magazines. Order or renew any magazine with us and 40% of each purchase goes directly to derek's support. Your contribution will make this a huge success and get us one step closer to reaching our goal! All proceeds will benefit the emergency funding for Derek Michael's bone marrow transpla...

I am putting up this note that I received from a dear friend in the hopes that maybe it'll get some more support on the blog (not that I have many readers but anyway!). I have not disclosed her name to protect her privacy. Dear friends, On Saturday, May 10, at 10 a.m., I will be walking in the Cincinnati Area Preeclampsia Foundation Friends and Family Walk to show my support for the more than 76,000 women and the over 500,000 children who die each year due to preeclampsia (toxemia) complications. I am walking in memory of Chiqui Isaza, my son, who died at birth on May 7, 2006 due to preeclampsia complications. Please visit my website at www.cincinnatipreeclampsia.com to learn more about my personal experience with preeclampsia, the Friends and Family walk, facts about this potentially life-threatening disorder, and to make a donation if so inclined. If you decide to donate, please make the donation “in memory of Chiqui Isaza” so that the national Preeclampsia Foundation knows yo...

This is an amazing video about Puerto Rico done in 1955 which my dad forwarded to me a little while back.

Sebastian is finally here and it's so difficult to try to capture into (COHERENT!) words everything that is going on right now! The hospital was quite the experience, especially because last time I had Jose in there with me practically all the time but now because of Gabi I was alone a good part of the time which was a little sad but at the same time gave me some quality time to spend with the little guy. At home things were upside down when I got home since my husband decided to have the whole interior repainted while I was getting discharged to take advantage of his mom's Martha Stewart instincts. The weekend with both Gabi and Sebastian was a little exhausting to say the least (if not hands down nerve-wracking). Especially the not being able to sleep anything at all at night but yet your daughter is ready to GO GO GO at 7 am the next morning. Now that she went to day care I hope things stabilize just a tiny bit. I feel bad for saying this but if she didn't go to day ...

I am finally enjoying maternity leave! I thought I would have more time to write but I've actually been on a frenzy of getting things ready for Sebastian, climbing ladders and doing other things that Jose would actually kill me for. :) I'm proud of my handywoman skills though, this time's nesting instincts have been much more about cars and ladders than decorating and scrapbooking Martha Stewart style. Sebastian is still making no signs of showing up, just like Gabriela. I saw the doctor for the last time on Wednesday (yay, no more peeing into a cup!) and he was like, I'm not even going to check you because I don't think you're going into labor...EVER. And then I went to the chiropractor this morning and he said you know if I adjust your lower back you'll probably go into labor, and I was like no thanks, I still need to sleep for a couple more nights. So for now, I'm still waiting. On another subject, after 2 and a half years of resisting getting a ...

Well, those of us who live in the Ohio valley experienced what I guess was the worst snowfall in the last 30 years (I heard something like that on the news). Approximately 8-10 inches of snow in a 24 hour period. Granted, this is what I would call a "normal" snowfall in my Boston days, but for some reason the city of Cincinnati seems to be ill-prepared for managing such copious amounts of snowflakes, and thus chaos ensued. My husband and I decided to drive in to work together on Friday which was a great idea given the fact his car couldn't have moved 2 inches in that snow. I wonder how my friend Tom did with his new BMW. On Friday afternoon there were two BMW's stranded in front of my house (one shown above). And I live on a "hilly" street, but nothing a normal car shouldn't be able to handle. But these two cars were going NOWHERE. One of them called a tow truck and even the tow truck started slipping and sliding down the street when he was tryin...

I am 5 weeks away from the big date, and more importantly only 3 weeks away from getting some time off from work, which one can never complain about. :) Of course I have a list of 10,000 things to do at home before the baby comes, so I'll actually have to balance what I want to accomplish with actually needing to rest -- my back is killing me so badly I get home at 6 pm and if I'm not lying in bed by around 7:30 pm (although I don't fall asleep until a couple of hours later) my back doesn't have enough time to recover by morning. And even then by 10 am I already am in back pain mode all over again. I'm going to the chiropractor weekly now which definitely helps, but it's still quite a challenge to manage stuff at home (especially Gabi) with this backpain. Jose of course now claims that he does 100% of the work at home - even though he's not even close to that. But thankfully he definitely is helping a lot more. I can basically only do drop off duties ...

After spending 3 whole weeks with Gabi 24/7, and coming back to a hectic couple of weeks between work, having visitors, and Jose being out of town, my sister offered to take Gabi for a couple of nights this last weekend and although I really didn't see the need for it at first, it was the best thing that's happened to me...ever. After sleeping in until a whopping 9 am, being able to go out only needing to worry about getting dressed myself, being able to have a completely quiet and relaxed meal at a restaurant, and my husband being able to go through an 8-10 hour marathon of watching sports, I realized how badly I was in need of my mini vacation. My only regrets were being so tired last night that we didn't make it to "dinner and a movie" which is what I meant the whole weekend to be about!!! Sometimes I feel guilty about saying this, but it was so good not to have Gabi for a little while. Even though half of the time I felt like I was forgetting something and...