Happy Mothers Day!

I first became a mom on July 17, 2003

My first Mother's Day - May 2004
Mother's Day 2005 - that's when I used to sleep in a little bit!
I became a Mom a second time on April 22, 2006
Mother's Day - May 2006


Mother's Day - May 2007

And here we are ... Mother's Day 2008!



I am so incredibly thankful for having two beautiful and healthy children. We've been through a lot as a family, and I begin and end every single day with the best gift in the world -- kisses from my two girls!

Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms out there!!

My baby is growing up...

Where is the time going? Last night, Joli went on her very first sleep over. Not to Lola's house. Not to Grammy's house. Not to Mia's house. No, Joli went on her first "non-family" sleep over last night! She had a wonderful time with her friends from school (sisters). I dropped her off at school on Friday morning at 8:00am. The arrangement was that Joli would go home with her friends after school and then sleep over there. I was certain that I was going to get a call around 10:30pm or so asking me to pick up Joli because she wants to come home. Well, 10:30pm came and went ... Joli was fine.

The next morning, the mom invited Jada and me over for breakfast. So I fully intended on bringing Joli home after breakfast - reasonable thought, right? Well, breakfast came and went, and the girls decided they were going swimming in the indoor pool. So, Jada and I went and did some errands, figuring we'd be back to get Joli around lunch time. The mom said that she'd call us when Joli was ready. Noon came and went. Two o'clock came and went. Four o'clock. Six o'clock. The girls' mom called me at that time and said, "Joli is having fun. She doesn't want to go home. What do you want to do?" I said, "Nope. She's coming home. I miss her!!" Jada and I drove to pick her up around 8:00pm - a full 36 hours after I had dropped her off on Friday! I had to fight her to come home!

Truly, the fact that Joli didn't want to come home actually made me feel good because I know she had fun with the girls and was treated well.

When I was there for breakfast, Joli's friend, Haley, was getting her braids taken out. Joli saw all of the synthetic hair coming out, and she was surprised. She asked Haley's mom what that was, and her mom explained that Haley needed "fake hair" to make her braids. It was SO awesome to hear Joli asking questions and being exposed to differences in something as simple as HAIR. I didn't understand the whole process of braids/hair until well after college. And, it's great to see my 4-year old already gaining this knowledge about differences. The girls' family is from Nigeria, and I love that Joli is learning at a very early age how we are all different and beautiful. Growing up, I didn't have any black friends (or Latino friends, gay friends, etc), and it's been such a priority for us to make sure that our kids experience diversity in many ways in their lives.


Joli's best friends at school!
Joli had a fantastic time with the girls, and we're sure to do it again!

I'm simply posting this for memory sake:

It's now 9:12pm and Joli and Jada should absolutely be asleep. Yet, twice, Joli has yelled philosophical questions from her bed. Now, imagine, she is YELLING from her bedroom to me as I sit at the dining room table....

"Mooom!!" (yes, Joli?)
"When you die, will you be BONE DRY?" (what, Joli?)
"I said, when you DIE will you be BONE....DRY???" (will I be BONE DRY??)
"Yes! And will you have no skinnnnn???" (Joli, we can talk about this in the morning)

"Oh-KAY, MOMM!!"

(silence.... for 15 seconds)

"MOOMMM!!" (yes, Joli?)
"I just have ONE more question." (okay, Joli, what?)
"What's it like being a grown up?" (it's fun, Joli)
"Okay, but would you rather be a kid or a grown up?" (we'll talk about this tomorrow, Joli....)

Enjoying Spring!

We've had a few days of great weather and the kids and all certainly took advantage of it!

Mia outside ... she ALWAYS wears this crown....



Jada "The Scowler" upset about something


Best friends! (taken just before Joli went to the beauty parlor)


Joli has had her hair done a few times in her life. We like to wait until we get to NY, but it was just getting so heavy that we had to get it done here. Thankfully, Joli had an awesome time!

Joli getting her hair done - 1st step: Shampoo and Conditioner


Sarah (the hairdresser) working with Jo's hair - she thinned it out A LOT and it feels so great!


Miss Fashionable with her final results!


Jada and Jorge giving their hardcore faces

Jada is famous for her "scowl" -- she was not happy I was taking her picture here....


Tita Elma helping Gavin on the scooter

Jada surprised when I caught her picking flowers from the garden!


Jada hugging Gavin -- they call each other "honey"

The Way My Girls "Fight"

Jada has discovered the power of her fists lately - yes, I mean hitting. She's a hitting machine and it's making me crazy.

I happened to be sitting across from Jada and Joli this morning, and here is the interaction I caught. Thankfully I had my camera and decided to snap pictures rather than intervene....

This is the girls sitting peacefully watching some early morning television:



Out of no where, Jada turned around, jumped on Joli and threatened to hit her... (I caught her pre-hit). Note the troublesome smile on that girl's face and Joli's anticipation of getting whacked.
Houston, we have contact... Jada, still smiling....
Unprompted by me, Jada then gave her sister a big hug....
Only to have the "hug" turn into a "choke hold"

Gordon decided to just lick his own boogers during the fight. At which point I yelled, "Hey! Girls! Gordon can lick his own boogers!!" and that broke up the fight.

Who said I was raising Princesses????!?!??

Jorge's Commercial

Check out the latest celebrity in his first commercial!

JADA TURNS 2!!

Jada had a fun birthday today! She celebrated for three days - starting it off with a birthday party in Queens, then had a dinner party at our house the next day, and then a fun day on her real birthday!

The first of 3 parties ... this one is after a lot of ice cream in Queens.


Celebrating pre-birthday fun at the Bronx Zoo with Grammy and Pops ... see, I KNEW Jada was a bug!
Love to Grammy! The girls had such a fun time at the zoo (and so did Grams!)
Posing with Pops! (he's rocking a Buffalo Soldier shirt under there!)

Back home -- Jada's birthday crown on April 22nd
Her birthday breakfast from Tita Elma!
After birthday breakfast, we went to the Mystic Aquarium .. I love this picture because it was the first thing they all saw when they walked in . Mystic is awesome because it's really kid friendly with exhibits right at their eye level.

Great photo of Gavin and Jada after spotting a beluga whale!

The Dads and their Gals at Jada's birthday party
The cousins celebrating Jada's 2nd birthday! I love the reflection of the adults in the mirror trying to get the kids to laugh!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JADA! We love you!!

Jada turns 2 tomorrow...

I'm exhausted, the house is quiet, and I'm thinking a lot about Jada and Joli. Jada turns 2 tomorrow.... I remember exactly how I was feeling and what was going on that day 2 years ago. I figured I'd write about it now since tomorrow is going to be packed with fun!

It was a Friday afternoon when I left work, relieved to be taking the next week off as I was getting closer to my due date. The Vega family was in town and was leaving on Saturday. Around 6:00am on Saturday morning, I woke up and just couldn't get back to sleep. I remember tossing and turning and feeling kind of crampy. I got up, made coffee, and felt my belly hurt somewhat regularly. I decided to time it "just for fun" and my belly hardened every 20 minutes or so.

Around 8:00am, after everyone was slowing getting up, I called the doctor to see if I should do anything. She said, "It doesn't sound like you're in pain, so you must be fine." At 8:20am, I called back -- this time, in PAIN. Jorge and I drove to the hospital where they decided that, yes, I was going to give birth that day. At around 12:45pm, I started pushing, and by 1:06pm, Jada Grace joined us in this world.

Today, while driving home from New York, I stared at Jada in the rear view mirror and realized both how small and how big she looked. I also remembered that it was at this age that Joli was diagnosed with cancer. I do know that we've "moved on" in a lot of ways, but there will always be those milestone moments that remind me of our journey with her cancer. While Jada is such a smart, articulate, mature little gal, I am reminded just how little, small, and tiny Joli was when we went through this ordeal.

Tonight, Joli took her eye out to clean it because she had lots of build up around it. When she did, she called Jada over to the bathroom to explain what she was doing. She told Jada that she had a "special eye" and that she had to take it out. She explained to Jada that she, herself, had 2 seeing-eyes. There are key moments when Joli proves how much she has grown - the fact that she could explain this to her baby sister was just so remarkable. Joli then looked at herself in the mirror and said, "Mommy, I think my red eye is pretty, too. I didn't think it was pretty before, but now I think it's really pretty."

I couldn't agree more.....

New York City

We had a fabu time in NYC this weekend! Jorge was at the comic con while Joli, Jada and I stayed at Grammy and Pop's place. We met up with tons of friends from college, grad school, and a few of our former schools - thanks for coming out and supporting, everyone!

Here are some of the fun highlights of the weekend:

Jada took her first of many subway rides. She was super sassy - she kept wanting to stand in the middle and not hold on to anything. The best part was this: (Liza) "Jada, you have to hold on to the pole or you're going to fall. Seriously. Jada. Hold on to the pole!" (Jada) "NO!" (Joli - whispering under her breath) "Well, then, have a nice fall, Jada."

Some special Mommy-time on the ferris wheel at Toys R Us

We completely surprised Jorge at the Comic Con with the girls. We kept telling him it was just Pedro and me coming in and that we could only stay for an hour or so. We worked it out with some of his colleagues and arrived undetected. Unfortunately, Jorge was in the lobby chillin' on the phone. We had to duck behind these crazy poles - Joli was hiding behind a trash bin just so Jorge wouldn't see us. But, thanks to the bright green "VEGA" jacket that Pedro was wearing, he spotted us. Well, at first, he just spotted me and Pedro... then the girls jumped out to surprised him! He was so excited!!

Hanging out at the Platinum Studios booth

Jorge helped out our former student, Luis, with a documentary project on artists of color.
Pedro and Jorge representing the Buffalo Soldier shirts
In Toys R Us, I actually "lost" Jada for about 10 seconds... I turned the corner and found her dancing on the Dance Dance Revolution game. Hilarious! Oh, and see that shark in her hand, I was going to let her buy it, until she smacked me in the face with it when I tried to get her to LEAVE that game.... no, Jada. No.
Hey! Jada's as big as New York City!
First subway ride for Jada - thanks to Uncle Ped who helped me wrangle the girls to the city!

We had a great time at Leo and Lucky's birthday party! Check out the beautiful Mermaid Fairy and little Kitty!




I woke up this morning and couldn't find Joli. When I called for her, she said she was in the bathroom. I figured she was actually going to the bathroom.... alas. No. Rather, Joli was hiding in there -- CUTTING HER HAIR. OH great.

It's sleepover time again...!

We took this opportunity to do our "monthly photos" with Mia added in (and Jorge).

Our girl Jada at 23 1/2 months! Hurray!!

Joli at 57 months!
Mia at 33 months
watching a movie and eating snack before bath time!
Jorge felt left out... Go Obama!