last weekend in pictures (and some words)

samil and his grandpop

look close! you can see amalio up in that tree getting some (or 27) avocadoes.

i'll have you all know that it's rumored that this man never held his own children. and here he is calming screaming amely down.

she was not happy to have her picture taken with anyone.

notice that she's crying again. the two kids on the ends aren't ours - they're just some kids who hopped in the picture

casmerlys and me.

casmerlys and amely.

samil, amalio and casmerlys - the two cousins closest in age.

five of the seven grandbabies.

i wasn't here for this and have NO idea why that bike is in the water.

the littles playing with josue. he was such a good sport about being jumped on.

going to visit the aunties.

sneaky peak.

i'm tired. it's late. but i needed to make sure the baby was asleep before i went and crawled into my bed. so, here are two pictures from our weekend in the campo to hold you all over until i get a chance to post more.

i'm well aware that no one is here to see pictures of me. just my (beautiful) children. however, it's important for everyone to see me occasionally. amely only slept while we were walking. this kid my dad calls the devil child. he's a nice kid, but believe me, you don't wanna piss him off.

my brother's been here for a month now. our neices and nephews love him, he might as well be their uncle. amely didn't want anything to do with anyone. you'll see. she's screaming in almost every single picture. (more on that later).

no one can say my kids are sloppy...

pictures.

when samil was born, we took tons and tons of pictures.

and when amely was born, we've not taken more than 10.

partly it was because i couldn't find my camera cable to charge the thing up, BUT i just found it the other day and still haven't taken very many pictures.

oops.

i'll get on that.

this weekend we're headed to the finca (farm) for father's day and so the baby can finally meet amalio's family. and so i can go to the beach. and samil is going to milk the cows and play with the pigs. tons of picture opportunities. hopefully i'll remember to snap away!

potty training? check!

special thanks to my mom for potty training my kid.
in two weeks.
that's right. if you need your kid to go on the potty, talk to my mom. she was here two weeks and samil has had only enough accidents since then to count on my fingers. and she's been gone a month.
and we are now 100% big boy pants. (pull ups only because public bathrooms are few and far between and usually pretty nasty... but samil refuses to pee in the pants anymore)
next step? standing to pee.

bath time!

she's not really a fan, eh?

i finally took amely for her one month appointment yesterday. i was only two weeks and two days late, but, better late than never. (we've had a helluva time finding a pediatrician. that's another post for another day).

she's gained only 1/2 pound but she grew 4 centimeters. FOUR centimeters! that's a total of 7 centimeters since she was born. we're still not back to her birth weight - mostly because of the phototherapy for her jaundice - but the doctor is not concerned because she is growing so fast!

samil has been really busy, too, playing and spending time with his uncle. more pictures to come!

spicin' it up.

i'm teaching an SAT prep class this summer for a bunch of students who study at an american school. i don't know where in the world they got the idea that this SAT is so important - but, hey, it's something to do, and it's money i wouldn't be making otherwise.

and they're great kids. (for the most part.)

but sitting in my dining room every.single.day for two hours at a time, studying for such a heavy test in summer. during vacation. in the nasty.hot.sticky.gross dominican heat is not what i think of an ideal break from school.

so in an attempt to spice things up a bit, we took the kids on a trip. something along the lines of amazing race, photo scavenger hunt and touristy photo tour of the city.

in each place they had to take a picture and then do an activity (of course related to the SAT because these parents are not joking about the seriousness of this test). then we went to pizza hut (but pizza hut was a trick - i'll write about that some other time).

samil missed out on the fun - getting him in and out of a 5-point harness didn't really appeal to me, but amely came along for the fun.

at the "plazaleta de los aguilas" of the monument making a human pyramid.

these kids didn't even know there was a public hospital in santiago.

picture with the nicest cigar maker (in alphabetical order)

re-creating a kung-fu movie scene in my parking lot. (i know, i know, asians? kung fu? their idea, not mine!)