Brain School

Mateo and Grandma walking down the hallway after preschool this morning...

"Grandma, did you know dinosaurs are only babies for 10 days?"
"Really, Mateo? How do you know that?"
"Oh, I just know."
"But how do you know?"
"Well, my brain knows."
"And how does your brain know?"
"Oh. Well, there's a school in there."

Makes perfect sense to me!

Mateo watching a little "Dancing with the Stars" before bed tonight after his first soccer practice. The new Diet Pepsi commercial starring Sofia Vergara comes on. Mateo watches, then says,

"Daddy, your girlfriend was just on TV!"

Hilarious!

Catalina is crawling!

Exactly one day before turning 10 months, Catalina began crawling! I am so proud of her! It was just magical to watch her make her first actual crawling movements... and it was classic Cogua to have a gazillion things happening at the same time! The video is a spot-on snapshot of a typical evening at our house. Add in a Skype call with the in-laws and a visit from my family and you have Cogua magic.

My sweet baby girl is 10 months tomorrow. There are moments when I just can't believe that she's mine... She is such a content baby and so easy to have around. She loves to babble, and up til now loved to roll - she is a very proficient roller, I like to say. She only gets upset when you put her in her carseat or when you take something away from her, and even then it is only momentary. Francesca and Mateo adore her, and Mateo can still make her laugh at the drop of a hat. Francesca will push her over every now and then, maybe out of jealousy, maybe just to see what will happen - but Catalina barely blinks an eye. She is a jewel and I enjoy her so much.

I'm working on adding the video, but thought I'd post this fun milestone!

So much...

With cousin Emma

In her new bed

Reading with Grandpa

Reading with Aunt Sharon

Happy bunch

First day of preschool

So sweet (7 months)

It has been so long since I have blogged about anything! And SO MUCH has happened that I feel overwhelmed with all I could and want to share. So I'll start with this.

Francesca started preschool January 24 - on a Tuesday. She goes to Standing Bear and is in the Early Childhood Special Education classroom. She absolutely loves it and she has had a language explosion since starting. It's been awesome to hear her mimic words she hears us say and attempt 2-3 word sentences. I'm so proud of her and feel so good about her time spent at school each morning.

Catalina is 8 months already. I can hardly believe it. And we just discovered last Saturday (February 4th) that she has gotten her first tooth! It's her bottom left tooth and I'm pretty sure it's driving her crazy. She is a drool queen and chews on everything she can get to her mouth. She also seems really close to crawling because she's moving between sitting and leaning to a crawl - precrawling positions. It's been fun to watch because Cata does it all instinctively, while with Francesca we really had to be intentional with helping her into these positions. Even Mateo needed a little prodding when we first got him. Everything with Catalina up to this point has been brand new to me as a mommy. She is everything typical and it's been its own new adventure.

The same night Catalina showed off her new tooth, Francesca made the inevitable transition from her crib to a toddler bed. No problem! She loves it and has gone to sleep at night and for naps with ease. Waking up in the morning is now more enjoyable too because she is not yelling for DADDY to come and rescue her from her crib.

Mateo is growing so fast. In less than 2 months he will be 5 years old. I can't believe it. He is just so sweet right now... just the other day there was a commercial for Kay Jewelers and he quick covered up my eyes and said, "Don't look Mommy. Some day Daddy and I are going to buy you that." I have no idea what kind of jewelry it was, but it was just so sweet that he wants to surprise me like that "someday." He's also funny. We were coming back from my Mom and Dad's the other night and Mateo said. "Parents are silly." "Why?" I asked, "What do you mean?" He said, "Well, Grandma and Grandpa are your parents and they're silly. Tonight Grandpa told me a story about Peter and a pickle." I laughed out loud and tried to clarify, "Did Grandpa say, "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers?" Yup. That was it. I keep thinking about how quickly Mateo is growing and wondering how soon it will be before he won't let me smoosh on him, so I try and smoosh on him as much as I can now. My favorite time is putting him to bed - after he's had "Guy Time" with Daddy.

Francesca's 1st day Preschool

Today was Francesca's first day of preschool! Yes, in the middle of the school year and on a Tuesday! Since she turned 3 in December, she could start school at any time. And she was ready!

From the moment she put on her backpack, Francesca seemed confident of each step beginning her educational career. She walked right up to the bus and waited for the doors to open without any prompting. She climbed up the stairs and posed for a smile once in her seat. She got off the bus as if she had made the ride a thousand times before, and grabbed on to Ms. Jennifer's hand just as if she was meeting an old friend. Once in the building, she paused to contemplate her red apple shape on the locker and then eagerly walked to the classroom exclaiming, "WOW!" She didn't miss a beat.

I was filled joy and so proud of my little girl today! I have such high hopes and expectations for my Francesca!

What up? I'm ready for school!

Heehee

Standing Bear Elementary and Francesca's bus

Getting off the bus at school

Walking from the bus to the school. When she saw me, she looked at Ms. Jennifer and signed and said, "Mommy, Mommy!"

Walking to her classroom

Her locker has a red apple and "Francesca" on it.

Hi Ms. Faith!

Mateo's Christmas Program

Catalina's Dedication

Today we had our sweet baby, Catalina Rose, dedicated in the church. With and before our family and friends and those in our church we promised to raise our daughter to know and love the Lord Jesus and to acknowledge that we believe she is a gift to us from God. The service was simple and perfect for our family. One of the most meaningful things was having my sister, Catalina's godmother, up on stage with us.

Pastor Phil gave a sweet dedication based on I Peter 3:

"2 ...when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. 3 Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. 4 Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight."

Catalina means "pure" and Rose "blushing beauty" so these verses were a perfect blessing on her life. My prayer for all of my children is that they would find spouses who demonstrate love and respect to one another, a foundational principle in marriage.

One of the funny things Phil said was, "No parents are perfect. You guys know that because this is not your first child. We mess things up. In fact, you have already messed up your first two..." Ha ha. Everyone was laughing, and I thought, "You are so right! We are so not perfect!" Case in point, I said Catalina's birthday was May 25 ... nope - that was her due date - but that's that date that appeared on the big screen. Her actual birthday is May 27. Oh well, nobody's perfect!

After church, our family and the Murray's and Blanca joined us for dinner at our house. Dad made apple and pumpkin pie ... mmmmm!

Journey Church has truly become our church home. Having Catalina dedicated there today felt like home. Of course, it is the people who are the church, and we are so grateful for our church family.

If you look closely, you can see the drool coming out of Cata's mouth and dripping onto Pastor Phil's hand!


Janelle and Bobby

The cake was a gift from Journey Church with 2 books "The 5 Love Languages of Children" by Gary Chapman and "Hush Little One"

Halloween 2011