Santi dances cumbia

Mateo's 4th birthday party with friends video

For Mateo's 4th birthday, we had his closest friends over and had a magic party.

Here is a video with the highlights....pictures to come later..

Mateo and les microbes...los microbios

In this cute video, Mateo tells us what he has learned in school that day...first in French, then in Spanish...Something about microbes...

Playdates with Isabel

In an attempt to diversify Mateo's friends and control his temper, we've been having more playdates with Isabel. Isabel and Mati have been taking yoga classes together for about 2 months now and have slowly developed a nice friendship. For Mateo, it's a nice break from his usual school buddies and his behavior is very different when he's around Isa: he's more controlled and gentle.

Isabel herself is an adorable 3 year old. Her mom, Patrycja, is a good friend of mine, and she's very hands-on when it comes to raising her daughters. We see eye-to-eye an a lot of things: alternative medicine, use of cloth diapers, using eco-friendly products, and above all, the values we want to install in our children, such as compassion, respect, etc.

Here are a few pictures she took at a couple playdates we've had recently.

Playtime at Parque de la 93

An unwilling to share Mateo: "It's MY truck!"

At Bagatelle del Campo - a wonderful restaurant outside of Bogota, with a magnificent play area for children!

Smelling the flowers

Isabel!

And the Celebration Continues

Nico and I celebrated with Mateo his 4th birthday with all his classmates today, all 28 of them! Nico read them a story on why thunder makes noise from a monthly magazine Mati receives, "Pomme D'Api". Don't know how much they actually understood since most of them were too busy picking their noses!! But Mati was ecstatic and very happy that we were there. Enjoy the pics!

Egg-free "Madagascar" themed cake.

Nico getting ready to read the story.

Happy Birthday Mateo!!

Antonia, who over the weekend, decided to emulate her father and shave her face!!!

Birthday boy!

Santi's Vocabulary Repertoire

Santi continues to build his vocabulary, looks like he'll be another chatty little boy! Here are some new words.

A ta!!! = A table, time to eat

Gaa = Gracias, thank you, merci

Aga = a guardar, pick up

Awo = halo, hello

Happy 4th Birthday Mati!!!

Happy 4th birthday to our little Mati!!! We had a great day with the little prince ... practically Mati called the shots. In the morning, beautiful morning (sunny, warm!!!), we went to park, then had lunch and walked back home before the thunder, lightning, rain and hail struck!!! After their naps, we opened presents and played at home. Given that Mati's favorite food is sushi, we had sushi night, followed by a yummy egg-free chocolate cake with chocolate icing and sprinkles!!! All three boys loved it!!!

It was a beautiful day and Mati was pretty happy, which is what's most important. Thank you all for your calls, emails and cards ... he enjoyed it very much!!!

Our favorite 4 year old. HE chose the clothes he wore today!

Dancing to Michael Jackson.

More dancing.

The boys playing soccer at the park.

Chasing after bubbles.

First taste of sushi ... and loved it!

Oh man, another little mouth to share our sushi with!!

The cake!

A multi-tasker, just like his mother: talking with Tio Cucu and opening presents.

Favorite present: his knight costume given to him by Santi.

Santi joins in the fighting fun!

After he sang "Happy Birthday" to himself the whole afternoon, WE finally did the singing for him.

MORDIDA!!!

Like all men in this family, cleaning the chocolate off his plate.

Making sure he got all of it!!!