More Ohio Pictures

I'll move on after this, but I just wanted to share a few more pictures from our visit to Ohio...

Esperanza giving Marti some love

Esperanza giving kitty a little love
Esperanza giving Grandpa a little love on St. Paddy's day

An early birthday celebration for my Grandpa who turns 87 this Easter Sunday

Esperanza following the kitty through the kitty door

Monique, Andre & Elijah

Monique's daughter Apache

Elijah sleeping peacefully

Monique's oldest, Enrique

Me and Enrique

Monique's son Jullian

Monique nursing baby Elijah

Out & About In Ohio

My Grandpa is the best tour guide and knows all the spots for hiking, canoeing, bird watching, sight seeing and all things outdoors in Ohio (as well as other parts of the country and Canada). We went on a little hike through a really neat park one sunny afternoon. Esperanza fell asleep right as we pulled into the parking lot. She missed the majority of the hike, spending it strapped to me dreaming.

She woke shortly before we left and I got some cute pictures of her, like this great profile

Marti & John have a beautiful piece of property.We spent some time running around the yard playing with Nikko and exploring several times. The day after we got there it was raining and the ground was really wet from the snow that had recently melted and there were mud puddles all over. I, of course, took Esperanza outside to play in all the wettness. Esperanza was knee deep in puddles, splashing around in the back yard while we were rained on. It was so much fun and I wish I had gotten some pictures! After that day, we were blessed with sunshine the rest of our visit. Below are some pictures of us strolling around the outside of the house on a sunny day.We finally made it to the zoo with Esperanza for the first time - the Akron Zoo. She loved all the animals, especially the big kitties. You should hear her immitation of kitties - thanks to my sister Mary, it sounds just like that of a wild tiger!

Each time I visit Ohio and my family out there, Grandpa and I take a drive to the Amish country for some sightseeing. This trip was no exception. It's a beautiful and peaceful drive. Though the first part of our drive this time around wasn't very peaceful until Esperanza fell asleep, it turned out to be another great adventure. I've taken pictures of the area and our adventures in the past, but for some reason I didn't get the camera out at all this time. We have the memories though.

The day we left, my Grandpa took Armando & Esperanza over to LeBron James' home to say hi. Grandpa and Marti go way back with LeBron and he lives just up the road from them. Unfortunatly, he wasn't there. Here's his house though.

Our next visit will be during warmer weather, so we can all go canoeing with Grandpa!

Sink Bath

This is quite possibly the best way to give Esperanza a bath. She kept wanting to get in the sink to play with the water when we were in the kitchen at Marti & John's. At first, just to keep her happy, I went ahead and let her sit on the counter and dangle her feet in the sink. It didn't take long though to just go with it all the way. We didn't even try to give her a regular bath while we were there visiting. I may just have to change to sink baths at home from now on since she doesn't like regular tub baths, and clearly loves the sink.

Yiayia's Indoor Slide

Marti spent a good portion of one evening playing with Esperanza while I sat on the couch chatting with Grandpa. After what seemed like at least an hour or more, we got in on the fun and found that Esperanza had gotten really good at sliding down the stairs on her tummy. In the video below, she's not going nearly as fast as she was all the other times, but it's still pretty darn fast.

At the end, you can tell she was clearly showing off, knowing I had the camera going. This is new! She's never been a show off until now. I should have left the camera rolling because she kept putting her arms up in the air, as if she was going to take a bow. She was screaming and smiling so big with joy and pride at herself and her trick.

And here are a few photos of that evening

Feeding Nikko a chip

Feeding Grandpa a chipShe wouldn't let me pull her hair back all evening

Ohio 2010

Armando, Esperanza and I just spent the past week and a half in Ohio visiting my amazing family. Words can't describe how wonderful it was to be with them. It's been a couple of years since I've seen them, and even longer since I've spent the amount of quality time we got in this visit. If Ohio wasn't so far away from where we live and the family we have here, I'd consider moving there.

The flight there and back wasn't as bad as I had expected. Keeping Esperanza confined to my lap on a plane for several hours is an impossible and unrealistic task. On the way there, she ran up and down the isle, stopping to stare at people in their seats or chat with other little kids. On the way home, we got lucky and switched to a row that had an extra seat where Esperanza slept a good portion of the flight. Flying is uncomfortable for most people I think, and even more so for little kids. Even though it went fairly well, I can say that the flight experience as well as the time difference has helped me make up my mind that there is no way I'll be taking her to Greece this summer while Armando is there. It would be an amazing experience for me, but cruel to her. I made a mental list of the pros and cons of taking her, and the cons outweighed the pros by a lot.

Back to Ohio...We spent the first few days adjusting to the time difference, staying up well past midnight, and getting over a bad cold that must have been caught on the plane. Eventually we fell into a routine and felt right at home. The first night we were there, Esperanza woke up in the middle of the night, sat up in bed and said 'woof, woof - doggy!'. This was the first time I'd heard her immitate the sound of a dog. Even sick and deprived of sleep, it was pretty darn cute.

It didn't take Esperanza long to warm up to Aunt Marti (or Yiayia), yet she never fully got comfortable with Uncle John - though I think it just became more of a teasing game to her when he wanted to hold her and she would freak out. I think she secretly really enjoyed him. When we were getting in the car to leave for the airport and head home, she reached up to her Great-Grandpa for the first time (without bribery I should add) and wanted to be picked up for a goodbye hug and kiss! This was priceless and of course the camera wasn't within reach.

Esepranza also had a great time playing with the kids, all 7 of them. Geneva's kids Anycia, Antonio & Angelica are staying with Monique, Andre and their4 kids; Enrique, Apache, Jullian and Elijah. We spent a lot of time over there visiting with them. Monique is such an amazing woman with a huge heart and soul that glows. I wish I could surround myself with her if only just so her calmness and grounding effect could rub off on me a little.

I took a ton of pictures, and so did Marti. The pictures below are all from Marti's camera. We did so much in such a short period of time, I can't talk about it or show it all at once. Check back soon for more Ohio pictures from my camera and some short stories to go along with them.

Grandpa Al holding Esperanza - with bribery of course

Going in for a kiss

Esperanza loved Marti's slippers and got pretty good at walking around in them

Anycia & Grandpa

Esperanza and Nikko

Could she be any more beautiful?

Aunt Marti and her favorite little girls

When it was time to take the kids home one evening, Esperanza gave Angelica a big hug goodbye. The goodbye lasted a very long time and she would scream if I tried to take her off of Angelica. She loves Angelica so much and the feeling is so obviously mutual. As I often do in many situations, I used bribery to get her off of Angelica after we got a few photos of Esperanza holding on to her for dear life. Though I will miss Angelica a lot, I don't think I can even imagine how much Esperanza will miss her.

Enrique & Antonio

Monique & baby Elijah

Making breakfast

Antonio looking a little too cool with the electric guitar John gifted him

Grandpa Al's 87th birthday

Grandpa Al & Antonio

The Latest

It's been awhile since I've updated my blog with what we've been up to and how our lives are going. I wish there were more time in the day because lately I feel like I just can't keep up with everything I want and need to do...blogging has kinda been put on hold. I'll get back to writting more soon, but for now here are more pictures and short stories from the past few weeks...


My sister Mary and her boyfriend Yoshi came back from their 'vacation' and are staying with us for awhile. It's temporary, but I sure am enjoying having some 'live-in nannies'. They are a huge help!

We went out to dinner for 'Hallmark Day' last month and this was the best picture we got of the three of usI have been knitting...alot. In fact, I've become a insanely obsessed with knitting. For a couple of weeks I did very little other than knit. Finally, when the kitchen compost began attracting ants, there were no more clean clothes to wear, the floors were sticky and people began to wonder if I had disappeared...I finally put the knitting needles down and got back to everyday life (thow I still pick the needles up a few times a day). Below is a picture of a baby pixie hat a friend asked me to make. This was actually the 5th or 6th attempt and it still didn't turn out as expected. I'm also still taking knitting classes and am not too far away from having a new sweater (pictures to come).
Last weekend some friends of ours had their annual sheep shearing party. Armando and I went one other time a few years ago and I was really looking forward to attending again. It turned out to be a beautiful sunny and warm day, which made it that much more enjoyable. I saw some old friends I hadn't seen for some time and got to catch up with them. There was a potluck with some amazing food to eat after the work was done.

The man below comes all the way from Australia to shear sheep in the U.S.

Esperanza wandered the pasture with the goats and chased some of the Spring babies around

After I came out of my knitting spell, I finally got some tomatoe seeds, pepper seeds and a few other things planted. They are germinating inside in front of a window and will stay indoors until probably May-ish. Esperanza has discovered that she too loves to dig her hands into the earth and play with the soil. We've spent some time gardening outside and getting the ground ready for planting this spring.
Esperanza, Armando and I are flying to Ohio later this week for a much needed vacation to visit with family. We've been trying to get there ever since Esperanza was born. For one reason or another, it just hasn't fallen into place until now. I'm looking forward to seeing my Grandpa Al, Aunt Marti, Uncle John, my sister Monique and all her beautiful kids, Cousin Mary and so many other people I haven't seen for a few years.

Here is my Grandpa Al riding his bike

And how can I resist from updating you all with a few recent photos of Esperanza!