Rodriguez Family Update

Wednesday, October 31, 2018

October 2018

Buckle up. Life is about to move full speed ahead. Everyone warned me once school started there would be no turning back but can we please return to the time where I was worried I didn't cut the hot dog small enough?! My babies are growing up!

Nellie is super into ballet, although she surprised us all by being SUPER shy for the entire class, preferring to sit next to me except for the part (video below) where she did the ballet positions and leaps.

Surprisingly, though, during the very last class she found her time to shine (maybe it was Wonder Woman powers??) and she did so great and had a blast!

I'm still not convinced that she's a (ballet) dancer but we are continuing on, this time at a program through school where she gets to dance with her friends.

We spent the first weekend of the month camping at Ventura KOA (one of our favorites!!); this is the place that burned down last year in the Thomas Fire but they are back up and running and we knew we had to support them when they reopened. It was still so beautiful and you could only tell it had been affected by a fire if you looked closely.

We went to so many great places; including our favorite park in Ojai and the cutest little pumpkin patch. It was out only one of the season but it didn't disappoint. The girls had a blast picking pumpkins, visiting the petting zoo and playing games.

Mila continues her busy social life and loves being around her friends. She is always asking for a playdate and I am trying to soak up these last couple of years where I can make her stay home with us rather than running all over town.

Mila is doing great in Kindergarten and is a really bright student. She loves going to school and thinks it's mostly fun rather than work. It has taken some time for us to find our routine but we are getting better at it. She has 3-5 sight words every week that she has to remember, 15min of required reading nightly, as well as homework pages and a bible verse. Pair that with the social life and her sports schedule and this mama is exhausted! I better figure this out before Nellie starts in on it too!

Mila had a big milestone this month (to me, not her); it was her first real sleepover. While she has been sleeping over with Kira since she was about three, I don't really see that as counting because Kerry started watching her at 3mo old. I knew Kerry SO well and the girls grew up together.

We have hung out with Juliet and her family a handful of times and I would say I know her mom and her family well but it was still an adjustment just sending her off for a sleepover. Juliet's family is great, though, and her mom was in touch and sent many pictures throughout the night. Mila had an absolute blast and can't wait to do it again.

As mentioned previously, Mila has been playing AYSO soccer this year. We were asked, recently, to attend a soccer practice with the local soccer team. I must say that she is AMAZINGLY better after practicing with this team just a handful of times. She's much more aggressive, committed and talented than she has been in AYSO. The coach is no joke, handing out burpees and time outs for losing and not paying attention but he's making them better. She loves playing and is becoming more talented every practice. It's so amazing to see her grow.

Nellie's class went on a field trip to Centennial Farms and she had a great time. She's such a stubborn and fierce little girl with us but is the sweetest little girl to her teachers and friends at school. I absolutely adore seeing all of the pictures of her and her friends and they fun they are having.

As always, keeping us on our toes, on Monday Robert said that he walked into the bathroom and found her mouth covered in red from a Halloween stamp. When I asked Robert what she said when he found her that way he said that she said she thought she looked beautiful. However, that smart little stinker was caught because Robert found her climbing up to get a bleach wipe (ahh! not a baby wipe; don't worry, Robert caught her before she reached them) to wipe off the evidence.

One of our clients owns a house in Surfside, CA right on the beach. They let us use their place for the weekend and it was SO AMAZING. I need to hit the lottery and buy a house there.

We closed out the month with Halloween. The girls had a blast with way too much trick or treating, trunk or treating and a pass through at Robert's federal building. We have candy coming out our ears and it may possible disappear before the week ends.

A funny Halloween story: I had bought Trader Joe's Halloween O's (like Halloween Oreos) and gave the girls one and Robert and I had one (note: 4 were eaten). I made the mistake of putting them in the pantry down low where the girls could reach. The next time I went to get some cookies for everyone I noticed there were ELEVEN missing.

Mom: Nellie....there are A LOT of Halloween cookies missing...any idea who ate them?
Nellie:..well...Mila had one...
Mom: Yeah...each of you had the ones I gave you but who ate all of the rest of them?

without missing a beat that girl looked me right in the eye and said, with an actual shrug:

Nellie: ...um...I think maybe Santa Claus?

And just because it's such a funny, real live video...here you go. Happy birthday Uncle Bret!

What we are looking forward to next month: Megan's CA Advisory Council work trip to St. Louis, Robert to San Diego for CNOA, Kansas City for Thanksgiving and a week of doing nothing!

Sunday, September 30, 2018

September 2018

Happy "I-can't-believe-we-have-a-Kindergartner-month!" But before we cry our eyes out over that, let's enjoy celebrating Labor Day with our best friends!

We hustled right back from Campland on the Bay, hung around the backyard for Labor Day, celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary, and before we knew it, it was the night before Kindergarten.

Mila was so excited to start school, and I think that made it easier on me. Shockingly, I didn't shed one tear on the first day of school, which is a miracle in itself. Had she been sad and upset, though, I know it would've been way different.

It was a family affair on the first drop off and then Nellie and I were able to sneak away for some alone time (more on that later). Mila felt so officially with her backpack and matching lunchbox and was so excited to have her very own desk.

We're now a month in and she still enjoys it so much! She loves going to school and loves all of the "big kid" stuff she gets to do, like go to the library, computer lab and sit in the chairs at chapel (preschoolers sit on the ground in the very front row).

While Mila was at school I took Nellie to get her haircut...

And then shopping for school supplies and shenanigans....

All because, the next day we had to do it all over again and Nellie had her first day of school! She's in the violet room this year, which she was in for summer camp, but is super excited for all the new activities and the fact that she is older than three of the other rooms and constantly talks about the "babies" (two year olds) in the white room and how they're SO cute.

We capped off a great first week with gelato with friends; these particular friends were from our mom's group and preschool but now go to a different elementary school. It's so nice we can still get them all together.

Soccer has started for Mila so our weeks are filled with practices and games. The girls chose their own name this year and came up with a good one...

We asked Mila what she wanted to do for her birthday this year and, true to fashion, she said she wanted a smaller party with just a few friends. We decided to have a waterslide party at the house and it was so much fun! It was so manageable with just a few friends and it was fun to hang out and watch the girls have a great time.

Robert has an uncanny ability to hear the first notes of a song and immediately know what it is; we have learned recently that Nellie has this same gene and can sing or hum to so many songs that she's only heard a couple times or that have only been on in the background. Not only is it super impressive, it is absolutely adorable to hear her sing.

While we tried soccer the past couple of seasons, this fall she wanted to try ballet. The very first class I wasn't sure if parents would have their kids in leotards or workout clothes or what so I just sent her in shorts and a tee shirt. She was SO embarrassed and hid under a table for most of the class. Afterwards, we bought her a pair of ballet slippers, a leotard and tights and now she fits right in and is enjoying it much more.

She is SO happy when it's time to put on her leotard and go to class but insists that I don't watch :( because it makes her nervous!

We did have a scare around the middle of the month and thought Roscoe might be on his last leg (well his last three). He came in one night and wouldn't put any weight on his back leg. We tried to figure out what was going on but he was so pathetic looking and kept staring at us with these sad eyes, like, please help me. I am usually the crazy one but when Robert said maybe we should take him to the vet I about lost it!!! I started taking final pictures of him with the girls and could barely keep it together for them to tell him goodbye before they went to bed in case he had to stay at the doctor (forever).

We even texted Garret and asked him to come stay with the girls so we could take him to the emergency vet. Just when it was time to go we wanted to see if he could walk to the car or if we needed to carry him and that fool got up on all four legs and was perfectly fine!! So now it's a running joke in our house that he faked his own death. So now we're trying to give him extra attention (he's SO needy) and I know I will not be prepared for when his time will come!

We ended the month with a trip to one of our favorite camping spots, Crystal Cove, to celebrate Robert's birthday. It's seriously THE most beautiful place to camp and it's so nice to relax. We spent most of the time just hanging out at the campsite but Mila and I did have to come back to HB Saturday for her soccer game and Sunday for her soccer team picture, but we were able to work in a trip to the beach and so much family/friend time.