Jada's Day Out and Joli's Tooth Out (almost)

With Gavin in Cal-i-foy-nia, Jada had a solo day out with Teetah Grace. Jada is so possessive about her alone time with Teetah. They called me from a lunch place just 1 minute from my work. When I talked to Jada and told her I might be coming to join them for lunch, she flew into a fury! "NO, MAMA! Just ME and TEETAH! NOT YOU! I DO NOT WANT YOU TO COME!"

She couldn't have been more clear.

When Grace said, "No, Jada, let Mama come. We can all eat together", Jada screamed "NO! I just want me and TEETAH!"

Fine. I got the picture.

She and Teetah ended up having a great time.

Starbucks date for some steamed chocolate milk


Teetah and Jada at the museum - Jada wanted to be She-Hulk

So, of course, Grace let her ....

We're also waiting for Joli's first tooth to come out! During dinner, she jumped up and said, "MOM! My tooth is loose.. my tooth-isth-loosth..... my toothistllooooth." And, sure enough, her tooth is loose! Can't believe she is already old enough to have a loose tooth!

We can already see the grown up tooth poking through behind the tooth (the baby tooth is leaning so far forward already). Will post pictures when that hole-in-the-smile comes through! Stay tuned!

Best of 2008

Just wanted to highlight some coolness from 2008:

Joli ...
1. continued to have great eye exams
2. learned to read, can name all of the 50 states and 7 continents, and learned to play the recorder
3. had her first music recital
4. learned to ride a scooter
5. learned some pretty advanced math

Jada ...
1. learned all the words to many of the Jonas Brothers and HSM songs
2. went to her first movie at the theater
3. learned how to use the potty and got rid of her diapers!
4. went to Canada!

Liza ...
1. rediscovered music through orchestra and church
2. was honored with a big diversity award
3. jumped into the blogging world professionally
4. founded a retinoblastoma organization
5. got pregnant!

Jorge ....
1. saw his comic book become a reality
2. self-published a few more books
3. taught at a writer's organization
4. said 'goodbye' to the old car and bought a new car
5. met some cool celebrities and became one himself

This year, we also said goodbye to Gordon, our very first child. We miss you, Gordon!

Christmas 2008

We're back from NY and the girls had an awesome time! Grammy got 2 new turtles that the girls named "Dora" and "Speedy." Pops treated the family to the movies (and, unfortunately, Joli caught him snoring towards the end!). After the movies, we visited Pops -- the original, Titi Ruth and Cousin Jennifer in Brooklyn. It was so good to see Pops again! Jada, unfortunately, was a grump, but she did warm up towards the end. On Sunday, we went to church and Jada decided to rip off her sweater and dance in front. Grammy then made the decision to bring the girls to the playroom!

Christmas outfits for NY - it was such nice weather!




Christmas morning at Lola's House. Joli and Mia pose so nicely.....
While Gavin and Jada's idea of "pose nicely" is acting wacky!
Jorge felt left out....

"Please, little cousins, smile pretty..." were our words just before taking the picture! Just think, next Christmas, we'll have Baby Talusan Vega (a girl??) and Baby Boy Matthews Talusan in the photo!!


Joli and Jada are really into dancing traditional Filipino dances. Here they are watching a video of a dance on tv while they wear their makeshift (aka Pillowcases) dresses.


On a different note, I just found out today that Jada used the potty all by herself! Meaning, she went into the bathroom, got her step stool, put up her own potty seat, peed, wiped, and then just called Jorge to help her get her pants back on! GO JADA!!! (which is great for us because that kid pees like 2x an hour!)

In baby news, here is picture I found online of what our baby most likely looks now.



I'm absolutely feeling baby kick and move around these days. S/he doesn't quite keep me up at night quite yet, but I do feel constant moving all day. I've been sleeping really well, only getting up once a night, and have been feeling so much better than the last few months. I don't seem to have as much back pain anymore, and my exhaustion has settled a bit. Everyone tells me they think I'm having a boy because my belly is poking straight out! We'll see!! I'm 6 1/2 months now, and we expect baby to show up sometime in late March!

We're having a great weekend in Queens visiting the Vega family! I don't have my card reader here, so here are a few pictures that Pops emailed over to us to post.

Pedro with Jorge Luis Vega (the original)



The Jorge Luis Vega lineage ... hmmm... who will have the next one??

Merry Christmas!

It's a very merry Christmas here today! The girls slept last night by the Christmas tree trying to, once again, catch Santa in the act! We put out some yummy treats of cupcakes that the girls baked, some carrots for the reindeer, and, of course..... nachos. (the nachos were Jorge's contribution)

At around 5:50am, Joli woke up and yelled "Oh MY GOSH! SANTA CAME! SANTA CAME!" I guess we were foiled again, and the clever man in red came to our house without waking us up!
She then woke up all of us and we started our Christmas presents - all before 6:05am.

Santa brought the girls a lovely doll house with furniture and two families, a new robe for Joli, and a Cheetah Girls poster. Jorge got replacement DVDs from the ones he had lost on the plane, rock band drum sticks (also previously lost), air freshener, a pink shirt (the girls are learning that, yes, boys can wear pink), and sour patch kids. Liza got the bag that she picked out and some chocolates.

We reflected on the fact that this year was a "budget" Christmas, yet it was the most fun one! We only got what we "needed" and didn't go overboard. It was lots of fun!

Last night, Liza sang at Church and the girls and Jorge had a good time. Even Gavin got in on the Baby Jesus photo.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Making cupcakes for Santa!




Gavin, doing the cool pose next to the Nativity outside of our church


Joli wanted to pose with her sister next to Baby Jesus. She got upset when she realized she was blocking him in the photo!


Jada with her Grover pose - she's already 2.8 years old!


Joli with her Tigger -- she's 5.5 years old!




The children were nestled ... all snug in their High School Musical sleeping bags.



Santa's tasty treats -- he ate everything but the jalapenos!



The big hit -- a doll house!



Liza and Jada in a post-present snuggle. Look closely and you'll see that Jada has tucked the baby dolls into my belly waist-band. Apparently, she wants me to have quadruplets....



Jorge playing some post-Christmas Call of Duty on his XBox.

Oh, the Weather Outside...!

So, quick throw back to August 21, 2005 - we just got this picture from Alonso. This was Joli just after getting her stitches out after her enucleation. Oh, how warm it was then!
And, now, 2 years later.... snow. Cold. Here is Jorge taking no mercy on the little children. He bombarded them with snowballs today!
Joli ducking for cover from Jorge's snow ball throwing! (yes, no glasses... we were very careful!)
Jada - she just jumped around the snow pretending to be a bunny!

Here is a picture of the girls in December 2007 - about this time last year when it snowed! They actually don't look all that different (maybe because they're wearing the same exact clothes from last year!)

Joli's Recital

Today was recital day at Joli's school. She has been in music lessons for only a few weeks now, and the girls in her class (all 3 total) put on a show for the rest of the school. Enjoy!

Joli with the girls from school and Ms. Rebecca, their music teacher

Lola and Lolo cancelled patients to attend the 20 minute performance!

Joli did a super job! She even had a few little solos and sang loud and clear. She had so much fun getting dressed up -- out of her typical uniform clothes -- and into her fancy black recital dress. Great job, JoJo!

Here is a link to the YouTube video of it: 

Busy weekend!

This weekend was nuts! We were up until well past midnight all weekend and then packed in our days. On Friday, Joli and I spoke at the Southern New Hampshire University where we were the featured family for Camp Sunshine. It was a such a nice event, and I'm guessing they raised well over $4000 for Camp. We have another fundraising event next week, too.

On Saturday, Joli and Jada went to their friend Melina's birthday party. Her mom, Tammy, took these great pictures!

Don't let Jada's grumpy face fool you.....


... she was just waiting for the part where she could shake her groove thang!

Saturday night, of course, was the Pacquiao fight - go Pinoy! Sunday, I had a busy day with some work related events and then an orchestra concert. Yes, orchestra. I hadn't played since college, but decided to join the school orchestra this semester. So, Jorge and the girls came, sat in the front row, and supported Mama!

Busy weekend -- and I have a feeling they are going to be even more busy for the next few weeks!

Let the Holidays BEGIN!

The holidays have begun in our house - especially with the start of the Christmas tree! The girls did a great job decorating and even got some fancy new ornaments that they picked out themselves. At one point, Joli turned to me and said, "MOMMY! Next year, the baby can help us put up ornaments." Woah.. we'll have 3 kids.

Here is a great picture of what my life is like -- I'm actually not referring to the size of my belly... I'm referring to the little girl who seems to be SuperGlued to my belly! Jada is obsessed. Whenever I'm near her, she needs to run under my shirt and talk to 'baby.' Whenever she can, Jada jabs her fingers into my belly button in an effort to "tickle baby." First thing in the morning, she says, "Good morning, Baby. It's me, Jada!" and last thing at night, she has to hug and kiss baby. Apparently, she has forgotten that I am attached to Baby and will usually just greet my belly and run off. Nice.....


Here is my view of Jada at all times -- 1/2 of her face. The other half is hidden under my belly. (yes, that is my belly at the bottom of the photo)


I finally got the girls to pose for a Christmas tree photo!

I know.. I know... we live in Red Sox land. Jada was born in Red Sox land. But, we're Yankees folks at heart! Sorry, Uncle Paul!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

We had a great 2-day Thanksgiving feast! We were supposed to go to NY, but with my aching back problems, it just wasn't going to be possible -- sorry Vega family :( I'm sure we'll see you soon!!

Here are some pictures from a few days in November. Enjoy!

Mari and Gavin during hot cocoa festival after turkey.



Joli and Mia enjoying hot cocoa like "little ladies" (they called themselves that).
Jorge with his first turkey ever! It was so yummy! He also made beans and rice AND a pumpkin pie! Good job, Jorge!!
More posing with the turkey!
Joli and Jada getting their pictures taken in their matching dresses. This is hilarious because it is a classic Jada look...!
Still annoyed that Mommy is taking their pictures.


Ultrasound in the beginning of November - at about 5 months. Everything looks good!


Funny, funny Jada... we found her like this one day and had to grab the camera!

I Won an Award!

So, I usually post about the cool things everyone in the family is doing, and thought I'd take this one for me!

This past week, my colleague Kristen nominated me for a prestigious award through our professional organization. It's a regional award with potential for national recognition in March 2009. It was a pretty surreal experience as it was completely kept a surprise by everyone in my office (including an elaborate scheme to get me to the ceremony when I was actually planning on going home that evening!).

Kristen organized this whole thing, nominated me, got others to write letters of support and I was given the award in a very surprising ceremony on Tuesday night. The speech was written by my boss, Fr John, and was filled with very humbling quotes from people about the impact I've had on their lives. It was nuts. I actually didn't hear much of the speech because I was too busy wanting to crawl under the table!

Here is a picture of Kristen and me just after I was given the award. It's a recognition award for Educational Equity and Ethnic Diversity.

So very amazing!

Post-Election Fun!

No surprise, we are thrilled about President Elect Obama! Here is a great picture of Joli and her best friends leaving the voting booth! I hope we can take a similar one in 13 (well years when they are 18 and voting for themselves!).



This is the latest giant belly photo also taken around November 4th. Thought we could record this for baby-to-be on this special day! Yes, those are stretch marks... already.




As the news broke on CNN, Jorge was ready for his close up!

We've felt the baby move a little bit, and everything seems to be going well. I have an ultrasound coming up, but likely, we'll still not find out what sex the baby is. Jada is obsessed with Baby; Joli doesn't seem to really care. But, I think Joli has been surrounded by all the cousins and babies that she's like, 'Uh,huh. Big deal. Another thing that'll cry and interrupt my pony-playing."

Some cool kid things:

1. Joli can read. It's crazy.

2. She can name all 50 states -- even I can't do that without really thinking about it.

3. Jada's favorite thing to say these days is "Jammboooo!" which is a warning that she's about to jump on you.

4. Jada says, "If the baby's a boy, I'm going to name it Diego. If it's a girl, I'm going to name it Dora."

5. When we do nighttime prayers and get to the "God Bless Mommy, Daddy...etc" section, Joli goes through the whole family. When it's Jada's turn, she says, "God Bless my armpits. God Bless my feet. God Bless M&Ms. The end."

6. Joli is rocking out her dance moves. She LOVES to dance and make up her own songs these days. She's also finally taking music lessons in school, and I hope she really gets into some sort of instrument at some point!

That's all for now! Have a great day!!

Like Father (and Mother)... Like Daughter

I picked up Joli early from school today so that she could come with me to the voting polls. I made a point to bring Joli to the polls today for so many reasons:

1. Wanted her to know the power of the individual and the importance of voting
2. Wanted her to see the process of our rights
3. Wanted her to know that voting is an expectation!
4. Wanted her to be a part of history -- a moment in time when she can look back and know she was a part of a very big day!
5. Wanted her to know that her Mom (and Dad) care about her future and the future of our country
6. She's been hearing us talk about Obama a whole lot, and we wanted her to see it to the end!

I took this picture in the voting booth of Joli after we colored in the circle for Obama. Hopefully she can look back on this day and know that we were a part of history.

After I came home and uploaded the photo, I saw that Jorge uploaded his, too! Like father, like daughter. Off to go watch the news!!