It's a Boy! The Gender Reveal Party

Back in August, Marcos and I went in for the 18-week ultrasound appointment to look at our baby's anatomy and discover whether we were having a boy or girl.  When Marcos' friend and coworker Jamie found out that we were going to find out our baby's gender, she insisted on throwing us a small Gender Reveal Party at the Carolina Alehouse after work on the day following the ultrasound appointment.  She and Jeremy, Marcos' really close friend at work, are dating, and they stayed up late the night before creating a truly amazing gender reveal cake.  Since this is our third child and we already have a boy and a girl, we didn't expect anything special for this little one, and so we were tickled that they were so into the idea of a little gathering for baby #3!

Above are Jeremy and Jamie and their masterpiece.  Below is the true reason that Marcos' coworkers choose the Carolina Alehouse after work for drinks and get-togethers - the foosball table.  Yes, it's kind of a thing and there is a lot of talking smack around this "sport".  Hey, for some guys it's football, and for a bunch of computer nerds, it's... you know, foosball.  Below, Jeremy and Brantley take the game very seriously as Orion and Gigi learn from the big guys.

And then for the moment of truth.  The party was mainly for Gigi and Orion, who didn't know what we were having - we cut open the cake and inside it was....  blue!  A boy!  Blue cake and in the middle, a carved out cave stuffed with blue m&ms.  And then Gigi did the most horrifying thing - she immediately stuck her hand into the cake to grab fistfulls of the candy!  At the time I was mortified, but recently a friend was telling me about how she made a similar cake at her son's birthday party, and when the first slice was taken out two kids at the birthday party did the exact same thing.  So maybe it's a primordial kid reaction to finding themselves in front of a cake filled with m&ms...

It was so incredibly thoughtful of Jamie and Jeremy to throw us a little party in honor of our baby.  Not everyone who came made it into these photos that I included, but it was a nice group of Marcos' close friends.  Always a joy to hang out with these quality people!

Back from Sabbatical

I'm back from sabbatical.  Or, I like to think that I'm back.  My goal is to catch up on the past few months of life in Mettaland.

As I mentioned in my last post, this summer was long for me.  I am pregnant with our 3rd Prieto baby, and being sick, having low energy and managing the two kids outside of my belly was a lot of work.  Now school is back in session so Gigi is with her friends and teachers every day, Orion is in his one-day a week coop preschool, I am feeling much better physically, and I have a LOT on my plate this year.  I was invited to be on the Board of Directors of the Emerson Waldorf School this summer, so I started as a Board member in July at the turn of the fiscal year, and I am also one of the two-coordinators of the Parent Organization at the school.  Neither of these leadership roles stress me out beyond capacity, but the workload involved in each of the positions ebbs and flows.  Heading up the Parent Organization can be really demanding at times.  Luckily, we have a powerful leadership team this year (by my careful design) and my vision is that each of us end the year feeling like our commitments were worth our while, enjoyable, and that we will not feel burned out, resentful, or mad.  The group in general seems really dedicated to making leadership this year sustainable and collaborative, and they are buying into my mantra of "many hands make light work".  I have great feelings about this year!

As far as things are going on the pregnancy side, this time around has been identical to my pregnancy with Orion - low energy the first trimester, but not the nausea that I had with Gigi.  We were really hoping for a girl, but it's another boy.  Orion has totally sold us to the idea of boyhood, but this little one will be our last and I was hoping to end on a girl note.  Oh well, I'm over the mourning already.  Things unique to this pregnancy were my complete lack of interest in sweets during my first trimester (it returned when I was feeling better during my second trimester - darn!) and of course having already had two babies, my body is nice and achy in the lower back and nether regions after a long day of being on my feet.  Another unique thing about this pregnancy is that it is the first time I have gone into the pregnancy in shape (I've been steadily working out at the gym for almost 2.5 years now, which is HUGE for me) and I am continuing to exercise each week, although I'm no longer in the bootcamp classes, of course.  I feel like I look and feel better than I have during any of my other pregnancies, and I credit part of that with being in shape and being healthy.  I am due in mid-January, and I am very thankful that I can get through the holidays with my family of four before welcoming our baby boy after the New Year.  This past year I had a hard time with the long cold winter, and so I'm glad to have a sweet little person to take my attention from the depressing weather outside of my door.  Now, we just need to find a good name for him...

In other news, we have a little family garden bed now at the Emerson Waldorf School community garden.  It is only about 4 feet x 8 feet, but it was a good amount of space to do some experimenting since I have zero faith in my ability to really excel in gardening.  Gigi had been begging for months for a garden, even if it meant moving to a new house (!), so finding out that the school had family garden beds available for a menial price was very exciting.  They provide the garden bed (which was completely overgrown when we got it), the biodynamic compost, the irrigation that drips two hours a day, and a huge fence around the entire garden that keeps out the deer, etc.  My entire investment in the garden was $12.50 for the organic seeds, plus the few hours of volunteer work that I am doing in order to "pay" for the garden bed for the year.  Incredible, right?  We planted a few weeks before school started and so had to focus on late summer and fall plants, but we've already harvested beautiful lettuces, snap peas, and some turnips.  Our kale is also getting big as are the beets.  We also have carrots and some flowers.  I'm excited to put in garlic when it gets colder, and especially bulb flowers in a special place, so that we can have tulips in the spring!  We go to the garden about once a week to weed, harvest and tend the garden, and Orion is a pretty awesome gardener.  He gets out the little red kid wheelbarrow, and wheels it around taking the turnip tops to the chickens and the weeds to the composting pile.  It helps that my mom is very excited about the garden as well, and she's always up for helping and working with us to cultivate our spot of earth.

In Marcos' work life he is crushing it, as usual.  It sounds like out and out bragging to go into too much detail, but he is truly amazing.  He is providing some leadership for a small virtual device lab at work that is getting a huge amount of attention within the company, and everyone loves him.  No surprise there.  We still feel like we're playing catch up in the career path since he was a non-traditional (read: "old") student at UNC and therefore had to come into Fidelity through a training program for recent grads, but he's been told from many people that he's on the fast track to leadership, which is where he wants to be.  Not everyone in his field has the interest in managing other people and projects, but Marcos does and he will.  He's been doing technical interviews for potential employees since the beginning of the year, he has assisted in keeping his main projects moving forward with his small team, and he recently attended a conference in Boston, and presented at a NC Development conference.  He also heard about the StarWest development conference in Anaheim, CA, a few months ago and got Fidelity to send him and five other guys to attend the week-long conference in California.  So last week, as we got our first real week of cold, gray, rainy fall weather, he was doing facetime with us from SoCal and walking us around Disneyland where the conference was held.  The kids ate up every second of getting to watch him walk around sunny, warm, dazzling kid paradise.  But truthfully, in everything at work, I think what makes him stand out is that he is an extremely loyal and supportive co-worker, and from the very beginning, he decided that his MO at the office was going to be to give credit where it was due, allow others to shine, and work collaboratively with everyone.  This is in contrast to what he heard about corporate America going into the job, but his unique take has really endeared him to everyone and given him allies in the funniest places (he was out sick for a few days and the cafeteria workers kept asking his co-workers about him).  He works really hard, but often says that he feels like he is playing, and he can't believe he gets to work with such great people.  One of his best buds and co-workers, Jeremy, says that Marcos has made working fun and inspiring again.  I totally believe it.  I'm married to him.

And that's kind of where we are!  I'm going to wrap up this missive and find some cute photos to post from the past few months.  Thanks!

Summer of the Tired Mom

I wrote this over a month ago, and am just publishing it now.  This was a loooong summer for me.

***

This is a gross generalization, but I feel like I've talked to enough people recently to have a loose theory that parents of young children generally do not love summer vacation, and parents of older kids really do.

Well, I have young children, and I definitely do not love summer vacation.  I decided last spring that 5 years old was really young to farm Gigi out to summer camps.  Plus, we're paying for a private school tuition which includes a payment through the summer months, so the idea of paying even more for expensive camps was painful.  However, a few weeks into the summer break I was wishing that I had at least lined up a few weeks of camp.  Now I know better, and already have my plans in the works for next year.

You see, I have a 5 year old, and a 2.5 year old, and for some reason it didn't occur to me that they would fight.  All the time.  And it started approximately when my energy fell apart and disappeared, which was basically all summer until recently.  I'm 19 weeks pregnant, which meant that I was right in the middle of an exhausting first trimester when school let out and suddenly there was a need for sibling mediation approximately 400 times per day.  Gigi and Orion love each other fiercely, but they are siblings and now how to irritate each other like nobody's business.

And then recently I've been feeling better, and we've gotten into a groove that really works.  Right before school starts again, of course.  My main strategy is to have somewhere to go every morning of the week.  Park day?  Play date?  Exercise and Pool time at Tutu's house?  Gardening at our community garden?  Story time at the library?  Sure!  Just get. us. out. of. the. house...

Quotable Mr. Orion

There is a lot I don't do.  One of my favorite things that I DO do is keep a word for word account of the really memorable things my kids say.  Especially when they are young.  This is a collection of recent quotes from 2-year old Orion, which I quickly scribble onto notepads I have hanging in the kitchen for this very purpose.

***

Metta: Come here, Bubbuh.

Orion: I'm not a bubbuh anymore.  I'm a big boy.

***

Marcos teaching our kids about promises...

Marcos: ...For example, kids, when I married your mom I promised that she would be the one I love and a very special wife.

Orion: I have a wife.

Marcos: You do?

Orion: Yeah, she lives in California.

Marcos: What's her name?

Orion: Josh.  She lives in California.

***

Gigi comes in the house crying...

Gigi: Orion pushed me into a bush and said that I could never, ever, go to California!

(Yes, Orion is a little obsessed with California.  When Gigi was little and we saw an airplane and I asked her where she thought the airplane was going, she always said Africa.  Orion always says California).

***

Orion stomps his foot dramatically...

Orion: I'm getting upset at you because you said my blankie is a TOWEL!

***

Orion: Gigi can't take her gnome into the bathroom.  That's out-appropriate.

Metta: Do you mean inappropriate?

Orion: No, OUT-appropriate!

In Utah this summer, very offended that after he splashed someone, they had the nerve to splash him back.  Did I mention that he is 2 years old?  Love, love, love this boy...

Utah in the Summer

At the beginning of July we took a family vacation to Utah to visit Marcos' family.  When we left in the dead of winter after visiting for Christmas a year and a half earlier, I feel like it took us a while to be on speaking terms with the state again.  We loved our family time, but the state was just...  too cold, too sick, blah.  This time, I was determined to be positive and look for the things I really enjoy about Utah.  A step in the right direction was deciding to kick off our vacation with a day down in Moab and Arches National Park.  We just thought, if we're going to Utah, we're going to do this the right way and see some of the beauty that place has to offer.

If you've never been there before, Arches is definitely worth putting on your bucket list!  Imagine a thin winding road snaking through miles and miles of untouched desert and crazy rock formations.  We arrived in the late afternoon and we hiked to Sand Dune Arch, which was really more of a short stroll than a hike - perfect, since we were squeezing out some of the last hours of the day.  The red sand around the arch was so fine that the kids immediately took off their shoes and ran their fingers and toes through the soft powder.  

Somewhere in my identity I have this idea of myself as being very adventuresome (perhaps I haven't updated my self-image since before I had children...), but in our day to day reality, I am quite good at being a fairly boring person.  So getting out and doing this crazy thing with the kids in tow was really energizing.  I think that we really impressed ourselves, like, wow, we are DOING it!  I know this kind of thing comes so naturally to families who live and breathe The Great Outdoors, but it was a little bit out of our comfort zones which made it a very satisfying journey.

Marcos and the kids watched a magical sunset from the top of this huge rock.  I prayed that Orion would make it down safely, and he did.  That night we enjoyed the childhood magic of staying in a hotel room in Moab.  We paid extra for a hotel with a pool, but with our hiking schedule of coming back late and leaving early, we didn't end up having the time to so much as put our toe in the water.  Oh well.

The next morning we woke up early, ate a generous continental breakfast in the hotel lobby with a biker gang, and headed back to the National Park to tackle the hike to the biggest and best arch in the park - the Delicate Arch.  About three minutes in, Gigi was asking to be carried and said that she was tired.  After a quick pep talk, we set off again and she was a trooper for the rest of the 3 mile hike.  It was a challenge!  Marcos was in charge of the morale of the group, and kept the kids distracted by hunting for the rock piles that marked the path.  Gigi was in charge of rest breaks, Orion was in charge of water breaks, and I was in charge of snacks.  Here is Orion adding his smallest rock to the top of the pile while Gigi takes her assignment as the rest-boss very seriously. 

The final bend before the Delicate Arch was very "exposed", which is the hiker's way of saying that you can easily fall to a sudden death.  The pathway was wide enough to fit hikers going either direction, but Gigi preferred to run her hand along the inner wall as we hiked.  Sometimes I really appreciate my cautious child.

And those little specks are us at the Delicate Arch!  WE MADE IT!  I was so incredibly proud of our little team, especially Gigi who hiked 3 miles that day, and was a really good sport about it.  It was very helpful that with the cloud cover we had during the entire hike, it was 88 degrees instead of the 106 that had been forecasted a few days earlier when I was packing up for the trip.  Such a gift.

And that was our adventure to Arches National Park.  We were really only there for one day, but it was just what we needed as a family, to see some of the beauty of this country and stomp around in the big outdoors.  

The rest of the trip was highlighted with 4th of July celebrations and lots of fabulous family time.  On the morning of the 4th we got up early to watch the Provo Parade on a prime spot of blanket with our great friends the Mudricks, who were also in town visiting.

Maybe this is a small town thing, but it seemed like every bump of a village within 50 miles of Provo had a float in the parade representing the township and adorned with the Jr. Miss and her attendants from their local pageant.  As a non-pageant oriented person, I couldn't even make sense of the phenomena enough to explain it in empowering terms to Gigi.  When I finally out of curiosity asked her what she thought those girls were doing up there waving on those floats, she said casually, "I don't know.  Maybe they're the welcoming committee?" 

We rather preferred Darth Vader and the storm troopers ("are we really cheering on the bad guys?"), and the local LDS missionaries marching by.

And the rest of the weekend was family time.  Marcos' brother Danny, his wife Marie and their daughters Kaitlyn and Grace spent the weekend with us at our favorite ever airbnb rental spot in Mapleton, Utah.  We watched fireworks together on the night of the 4th at Rock Canyon Park with friends, we went to church together on Sunday, ate dinners together with Marcos' mom and Tom, stayed up late playing Ticket to Ride, and had a really dreamy weekend watching the cousins play in cousin paradise.

Danny and Marie and the gals!  And the Cousins Slumber Party.  

Here are the cousins doing a bit of early morning dance party.  "And you're gunna hear me ROO-O-O-O-OAAAR".  

Monday morning was a very special day to be a Prieto cousin.  Marcos' mom is a wonderful grandmother and had been planning for months to do a Cousins Birthday Party to celebrate all of her (local) grandkids at once.  It wasn't any of their birthdays, but she had the great idea to make a cake for each of them and we celebrated in style.  We chose the splashpad park in downtown Springville, UT for the festivities, and it was the perfect location.

In the splashpad department, the score is definitely Utah = 48, North Carolina = 0.  I can't figure out why we're so far behind in this awesome trend of parks with some sort of amazing water function.  Check this place out!  A winding "river" in the park, with all kinds of fountains, sprays, a flowing creek of water down the middle...  splashpads are the perfect marriage of kids getting soaking wet and keeping cool and having a blast, while parents don't have to so much as don their swimming suits or worry about their kids drowning.  I can't think of anything more perfect for a summer day.

The kids had so much fun, and I enjoyed kicking off my shoes and walking through the little creek to keep cool.  

Our new(ish) step-dad Tom, Marcos' mom Vitoria, and four of the six grandchildren (two live in Brazil).  Vicky and Tom did so much to put together a beautiful lunch potluck and cakes to celebrate our children, and we really appreciate their thoughtfulness.  For some reason we didn't get a photo of all of the family together, so you'll just have to mentally merge all of our heads from the various photos we did take that day.

Danny and Tom, Marie and Danny.  It's a super family that I married into.  

And cake time!  Pure goodness covered with M&Ms?  Yes, please.

These brothers...  I found 42 photos of them on my camera, in various states of flexing their muscles.  Some things don't change!  I swear we have a similar photo taken 20 years ago.  (Oh, found it!  Heh heh...)

And here she is, the Master Planner of all things fun for Grandkiddos!  Thank you so much Mamãe for having the grand idea to celebrate all of the cousins and their birthdays.  It was a real highlight of our trip to Utah and I hope that we can keep the tradition of the un-birthday party as an important part of all of our reunions.

And if that day weren't great enough, that afternoon we drove up to Salt Lake City with Danny and Marie and the kiddos, to tour the Conference Center, wander around Temple Square, explore City Creek, have dinner together out and just really enjoy each other's company.  

I guess that with all of the kiddos finally old enough to look and smile, taking family photos just didn't get old.  Sorry in advance...

Cousins photos!

Although I don't have any siblings, I was lucky to have chapters of my childhood that involved a lot of time playing with my cousins, and so it felt like a real gift for the kids to have that quality time together.  Thank you Danny and Marie for making the time to be with us in July - what a highlight of our summer to have family time together!

And then there was one more day.  We spent a few hours with our friends the Thaynes, who recently moved to Provo from North Carolina.  We did great things like watch the kids play at the neighborhood pond, the kids jumped on the trampoline, and I got to do what I love to do - help my sweet friend Becca fold clothes, organize and move into her new living quarters.  Seeing them again has made every departure easier, because we can just say, "See you later!" instead of the farewell feeling too permanent.

And so on that note, we will say See You Later, Utah!  Thank you for providing us with family time, your perfectly cool and bug-less summer nights, and all of the beauty you have to offer!