International Night

Tonight was International Night at Sands. Bella performed her "Feliz Navidad" dance with her class, and Lionel and I hosted a booth representing France - apparently Mexico was already pretty well represented. We had to bring a dish from the country we were representing, and given our hectic schedules we decided to go the easy route and bring dessert: Canned pears with ice cream, and chocolate on top.

The school walls were covered with the research projects the kids did about countries around the world, and we took a picture with Sofia's, which was about Mexico. We also took a picture of a school project gone wrong ... a poster about Italy that included a picture of the Eiffel Tower.

Before and [almost] after

It always takes so long to clean the playroom, but it only takes a few minutes for the kids to start the mess all over again. Oh well...

Cleaning day!

I spent the bulk of this past Sunday cleaning with the girls. We cleaned the playroom and their bedroom, including Sofia's desk. By then the kids were done, but I still cleaned their side of the desk. It all looked great!

Tiny dancer

Bella just completed the winter dance session at the Healthplex. One more session, and they will have their recital in May.

New Piano Books

Congratulations to my Sofia who just finished her red Piano books and moved on to blue, a more difficult one!

Pre-spring family walk

Today's weather was just beautiful. For the first time in weeks it was sunny, and dry, and it was warm enough that it made it all the way to 60. With that weather we couldn't sit around inside all day, it was just not right. So I suggested that we took a family walk.

Bella was whining because she didn't necessarily want to go, but for part of the walk she actually stopped her bad mood and enjoyed being outside with us.

Baby Fruit Land

Here is Sofia's latest book, or at least the start of it.

Give me a break!

Being a working parent is hard, but sometimes being at work actually gives you the quiet time and break you need. Today, for instance, nobody at work yelled at each other [especially in front of everybody else] because they didn't like the way the other person looked at them. Nobody pushed each other either. And when somebody asked me for something, and I asked them to please wait a minute, they actually did. And when they actually did, they didn't complain about it.

All those truths went out the window tonight, when we all got home. The girls eventually calmed down and got along all over again, but for a few minutes before dinner I am pretty sure both Lionel and I wished we had just stayed late at work.

Finally!

Today the weather finally warmed up and the snow and the ice melted enough so the kids were able to go out and enjoy the playground for a little while.

Barely there

Couple weeks ago I finished the Miami Marathon. Today, I had to fight to get just 2 miles in because my left leg is still in pain. I am religiously doing all the exercises and stretches they gave me at Physical Therapy, but it is difficult to be patient when I know that all my endurance, on which I worked for months and months, is going down the drain.

Pinkalicious

Earlier today my mom and I took the girls to the Children's Theater to see Pinkalicious. Truth be told we both found it to be a boring one, and I know that at times I was definitely close to falling asleep. The girls liked it though, which is good since this was really for them.

Coming back...

After running in Miami, my miles count went up to 914 in my running app. Then, in the last couple weeks I didn't run at all to let my body recover, but this morning I tried to run 3 miles. I said "tried" because my left leg didn't like that too much. After 1.5 miles I had to alternate between running and walking because I felt the tension coming back. It is a good thing I went to Physical Therapy earlier this week, and they gave me some exercises and stretches to bring my leg back to normal. It is going to take time though, so I will need to be patient.

Gifts for the little Valentines

Gifts from Grandma and Grandpa

Gifts from Mami

Sofia self portrait

Today Sofia started her after school art class all over again. Her master piece of the day was a self portrait that appears to be made with pastels. She wrote the wrong date on it, but that is ok.

Hielito

Last Friday we went to Abuelitos' house so they could watch the girls while Lionel and I went out for dinner with some friends from work. When we got there my Dad was shoveling the ice, so the girls decided to "help".

Made by Fifi

Tonight I went out for dinner with the friends night girls, and when I came back found that Sofia had prepared my bed for me. I guess Lovey is supposed to sleep with me tonight.

Cat. Rat. Mat

Today, since it was another snow day, I tried to give Bella a didactic activity that unfortunately didn't go anywhere.

She was supposed to cut letters from a magazine to make the words I wrote on the paper, but she literally only did one before she moved on.

Good skills

Sofia is pretty good at coloring, and she exhibits a lot more patience doing it than she does with many other things. The lines in this picture are very clean. No rush jobs. No crazy strokes.

Coco's new dress

This winter has been brutal, and today once again we had a school closing because of the snow and ice that fell overnight. 

The girls were good overall while I was working at home, but they were starting to get anxious and needed something different to do. So I promised them that if they behaved, at the end of the day we would make a dress for Coco. It took me a while since I didn't want to take out the sewing machine, but I finally finished it.

Learnings

As I look back at all the hard work in preparation for the Miami Marathon, I now realize there is one more thing I probably should have done: Get a trainer to do strength training.  Since running develops some muscles, but others not so much, that probably created the imbalance that brought pain to my left knee.

It is frustrating that despite the heat I felt fine -never out of breath, light headed, or low on energy - and yet, I was still unable to run the entire course because my leg was just not up for it. So next time - if there is ever a next time - I will do that one thing differently.

Training by myself was just fine though. Even though I initially thought it would be kind of lonely, running alone was actually kind of peaceful. And it probably also prepared me for being able motivate myself at the times when I thought all was lost.

So some things I will change, and some things I will keep. Or I may choose not to go for it again, and just say with the "easy" Half Marathons.

Additional Miami Pictures

View from the Hotel

Having breakfast

Picking up our packets

Dinner at Novecento

Dinner at Novecento