2014 is Almost Gone

It' been an amazing year.  Lucca came into our lives and while it's been nine months, it feels like the little guy has been with us forever.  During this holiday break from work, I've had the amazing fortune to spend so much time with Lucca and Zahra.  Lucca has progressed so much!  He is sitting up on his own, is close to feeding himself from the bottle and has been as healthy as an ox.  After the crazy beginning to this month, it's been wonderful to experience good health and good times with family and friends.

Look Who's Eating On His Own

Well, kinda... click here.

Zahra's Special Day

Our big kid turned 6 this past week.  We spent several days celebrating the birth of our daughter.  Whether it was a sushi lunch, enjoying gifts from the family, or eating sweets, we had her covered.  Then to top it all off, we had a birthday party at the house this Saturday.  We brought back the inflatable bounce house and invited friends from school and family.  It was a perfect sunny day and the festivities went well.  Aunt Juji came by and of course Abuelita was here.  Marissa made another gorgeous cake.  Zahra was a happy camper and that's all we could ask for.

It's been an amazing journey from December 8, 2008 to today.  We now have a grown up 6 year old and a frisky little soon to be 9 month old.  I cannot imagine my life without the two of them.  Some people like to say it all goes by so fast.  I like to think that it just is.  While I can remember so many great memories of the past, it seems as if they have been with me forever.  I'm so glad that I get to see my kids every day and I know it is a truly wonderful life I lead knowing I have such a great family.

Lucca Drums

The boy wants to drum!

Six Years Ago...

Zahra was born and we had our first post!  We'll have actual pictures of the birthday girl at a party over the weekend.

Sunday Photos

Zahra in the Nutcracker

Zahra just completed a wild weekend of performances at the Diana Wortham Theatre in Asheville.  There she performed with her fellow Ballet I peers in the Nutcracker.  She was a snowflake.  As the video begins, she is the second one in line of the hopping little snowflakes.  When the camera pans back to the front of the line, she is the second from the right.  After that, just keep up!

Click here.

What We're Thankful For

Zahra- "I am thankful for my brother's cheeks!"

It was an Asheville centric Thanksgiving holiday.  We had an epic Thanksgiving meal this past Thursday, shared with the White and Smith families.

I know I'm thankful for my family as well but health is on everyone's mind.

We survived the ugly stomach virus that is coming through town.  It has hit everyone.  Fortunately, we have moved past the vomit and fatigue and are now all healthy and ready to tackle the month of December.

My mom arrived late last night and will join us for the next three weeks.  Zahra has her Nutcracker performance later this week.  Lucca continues to shine and his smile warms our heart.

Lucca is Successful

Doctors successfully placed ear tubes inside of Lucca's ears.  This will help with hearing as well as with any ear infections he may contract.  They also cleared away his adenoids which, according to the surgeon, were enormous and blocked his airways.  We can already hear the difference when he's asleep.  Of course he's been up since 5AM so sleep is happening while we are awake.

Turkey Day is coming and we plan on being here in Asheville relaxing and taking a deep breath.

Lucca Giggles

We love the sounds of our son laughing.  It just brings a joy to our hearts that is contagious.  Feel the love here.

Zahra Losses a Tooth!

See for yourself...

Fall 2014

Catch up with some videos and pictures right here.

Lucca Updates

What a crazy last few weeks.  Seriously, see our last post...

Lucca has recovered from his last bout with yucky cold symptoms but his visit today to the ear nose and throat doctor revealed a larger pressing issue.  Seems like he still has some fluid in his ear (which the doctor said was normal) but he will probably need to get some tubes in his ears to help prevent future ear infections.  Fortunately that is not a huge deal and will save us all a lot of trouble moving forward.

He did test out well with his developmental score from the preschool.  He was on the average scale on his progress report which is pretty darn good considering.  We'll take happy and healthy and average right now!

Our little man continues to be a mover and a shaker.  He is sitting in his Bumbo (which he doesn't exactly like that much) to get some food from momma and sister.

Speaking of sister, she is just finishing up her first quarter at school.  Today she had a master drummer come to Hall Fletcher to do some cool drumming with the kids.  She continues to be full of life (and sometimes a little too much life but we still lover her).

Shannon and I are preparing for the big Florida trip which is really close.  We can't wait to see our families.

Crazy Few Weeks

It's been a wild a crazy September.  Lucca has suffered through his first ear infection.  It was rough for everyone, especially the little guy.  We ended up going the antibiotic route to knock it out.  Fortunately for him, it worked and he is back to himself.  Throughout the ear infection, it was a hell of a road.  Lucca was not himself and didn't smile for almost a whole week.  Grammy Lanie came through and prodded much needed support.  Shannon became ill during the ordeal as well.  And of course with both of us working and Z full time at school, it was a tough stretch.

Now things are starting to normalize somewhat.  Z has begun ballet again and is loving it.  School is almost out for the first intercession for our year round calendar and we're gearing up for the big trip down south.  The kids are great and Shannon and I are busy but happy.  I'm also about to undergo some surgery, the vasectomy kind.  That means we are maxed out at two kids.  Maybe a pet will arrive in the future but I'm hoping not.  

Before all of the craziness of the past week, Labor Day weekend came and went with a bang.  I hosted the Ultimate Football draft party and we had a ball.  Shannon has been working hard as an illustrator with our friend Marissa on a children's book.  And as I mentioned earlier, the big Disney trip is coming soon.  Once we return in October, I should have tons of photos and video to go with it all.  In the meantime, we will finish up this month strong.

Enjoy this video of the kids and this video of Z hula hooping at the Lexington Arts Festival and the pictures below.

WNC Fair

A tradition unlike any other, the Western North Carolina Fair!

Video and Photos Galore!

Thought everyone would like to see some more video and photos.  Here's Lucca's latest trick.  Here he is with his sister and I making faces.  He is also the master of the raspberry.

Happy Feet

Abuelita is leaving today (lots of tears).  It's been a heck of a run.

Lucca is officially off of Prilosec and so far, so good.  He only woke up once last night (4:30 AM) and went back to bed after 30 minutes or so.  With that kind of progress, the kids continues to be ahed of the curve.  As far as his reflux, it's still an issue but we will see how he reacts to being taken off of the medicine.  We may search for alternatives to the Prilosec.

We are really looking forward to the weekend and adjusting to live as a foursome again.  Zahra continues to do well in school.  Her progress report looked great.  We really appreciate her teachers who put up with her constant socializing.

Enjoy this picture of happy feet.

Lucca's in the Preschool

Following in his sitter's footsteps, Lucca began preschool yesterday.  He's in the infants class and so far everything has been pretty smooth.  It helps to have my mom around the entire time in the class.  She has been here almost six weeks and has helped in every aspect at home.  I'm not sure how we will survive when she leaves on Friday.

Enjoy the photos and this quick video of the little guy yukking it up while the other kids cry like banshees.

Music Works!

Zahra has been part of an amazing after school program at Hall Fletcher.  It's called Music Works and is based on the El Sistema Program that began in Venezuela almost 30 years ago.  It is basically in intensive music program for kids that teaches them everything about being a musician.  After a snack, some homework time and a recess, she receives music instruction from highly qualified musicians.  The Asheville Symphony Orchestra also contributes into this process.  This past Thursday, she joined renowned pianist Alexander Schwarzkpof for a performance in downtown Asheville.  This will be the first of ten such performances around town.  It's been a lot of work.  And while the performance may seem simple, think about how hard it is to get 40 kindergarten and first grade students to perform as an ensemble.  Enjoy!

Click here

Lucca Laughs

Our boy loves to laugh.  We just forget to film it.  Until now.

August is Here

Wow, work has been something special.  Shannon and I grind it out M-F and then the weekend is here to welcome more work.  If it isn't rearranging the basement, it's weeding the garden or running errands.  My mom has been a champ with the kids.  We are getting very spoiled.

Lucca and Zahra continue to love one another.  Lucca loves his sister's voice and lights up when he hears it.  Zahra is always kissing her brother and loving on him every chance she gets.  It's awesome to see the two kids getting along so well.  Hopefully it's like the forever!

Lucca PT News

Lucca's physical therapy went well this past Friday.  He's progressing with his head control and is about average on the spectrum for a child diagnosed with Down Syndrome.  His head is a little lop sided since he prefers to sleep with his face facing to the right so we are on that now.  He is also ready or more strenuous activity and has shown that he wants to keep wiggling and turning and moving around.  Yea!

Zahra's First Day of Kindergarten!

Our little girl at her first day of school.  What an amazing day she had!  Zahra's been looking forward to this day for what seems like forever.  Shannon took the day off to take her and pick her up.  I get the rest of the duties starting on Wednesday.  It was actually kind of normal seeing her at school since she has been there so many times.  I was able to see her at lunch and get a great hug, though I did do the teacherly thing and place her back in her seat after she tried for a second hug without asking her teacher if she could leave her seat.  And it's nice to have her at Hall Fletcher with an amazing teaching team.  Heck our school even got a shout out on NPR!  

Seijezzali Summer of 2014

Here is the movie recap of a great summer.

Here is the written recap of our summer.

The Summer of 2014 was always going to be a short one.  My school was switching to a year round, balanced calendar which meant that school would resume July 17th.  I had five weeks with the family and we made sure to use all of the time to hang out.  We had lots of visitors including my buddy Luis from my middle school days, Nick and Susie, Uncle Ted, Grammy Lanie and Abuelita, who is staying with us until Lucca begins Preschool (huge development for us, free child care for the boy that works with Shannon's new part time schedule at the city).

Days were mainly the same for most of the summer.  Shannon would shove off to work at 8:00 leaving me with the kids.  We would go out in the morning either on a walk around town, maybe hit Splashville or a park and stay active until noon.  Then we would scamper home, have lunch, settle Lucca and Z down for some chill time, watch World Cup (which was amazing and fun for me, World Cup basically started and ended perfectly with my summer break), and then play some until Shannon arrived at 2:00.  Then we would hang out together or I would run some errands until dinner arrived.  Then we tried going on an afternoon walk of some sort.  Finally it was the fun process of putting the kids to bed.  Zahra was going down at her usual time but Lucca was another story.  Some nights it wasn't until 10:00 P.M. when the little booger was out.  And it being summer, I got to hang out with him late night to help Shannon along, but he did a good job of learning to sleep at night, even if that meant he'd crash our bed at some point and have his mother attached to him.

We took one big trip to DC to visit our friends, the Blacklows.  We stayed with them for three days and enjoyed the National Mall and its museums and sites.  We also did the National Zoo and Chinatown where we enjoyed some of the best dumplings ever.  We stayed over in Harrisonburg both times on the way up and down and enjoyed pool time at the hotel.  It was a much needed escape from Asheville but we were glad to be home.

We also entertained so many folks.  The summer is a good time for us to reconnect with friends and we certainly did that.  Along with the family and friends I mentioned above who spent time with us, we had several opportunities to meet with friends from the area we rarely see.

Summer's been over for us for a bit now.  I began working in earnest July 10th and my mom's been here since the 12th.  Zahra starts Kindergarten tomorrow and we are all stoked.  Lucca will continue to have round the clock love from his Abuelita and his mom while Z and I toil away at school.

The summer was short and sweet, just like our little Lucca.

Under Construction

The blog has been taking a long slumber.  We've been busy and enjoying life as much as possible.  To be continued...

Photo Session

We had a photo session with the kids a few weeks back.  Enjoy.

Lucca Smiling!

More elusive than the Loch Ness Monster has been trying to get a picture of Lucca smiling.  We have one.  Thanks Uncle Ted.  His great grandma is proud.

Weekend Update- Sunday

We woke up well rested today.  Most of Shannon's family left either Saturday night or Sunday morning.  But Chris and Cora are still around so we had more fun to enjoy.  We began with a walk to Buscuithead and a savory southern breakfast.  Then we saddled up and took a major tour of the surrounding mountain area.  We drove through Canton,  hunted waterfalls in Dupont State Forest, explored Pisgah National Forest and Looking Glass Falls and took in the sights of the Blue Ridge Parkway.  We topped it off with a sumptuous BBQ dinner.  Safe to say we are all exhausted and ready for bed.