The Underwear Archives and Other Stories

Chapter 1: My Guardian Angel

At the end of March we embarked on our first trip away from home since our trip to Ethiopia last June. When going on long car rides, Ana Luisa prefers to pass the time by listening to her favorite song, "My Guardian Angel" on repeat. Should we try to change the song, she responds by singing "My Guardian Angel" as loudly as possible so as to attempt to drown out whatever other song is playing. We made sure to map out stops every hour or so of our drive, partly to give her vocal chords a break, and partly for the sake of the sanity of the three other passengers in the car. Our first stop along the way was in Albion, Michigan where we enjoyed some time together at the children's museum.
After this we continued on to Kalamazoo to visit Grandma Pennings and some of the extended Pennings family who we do not get a chance to see as often as we would like. When we arrived at Uncle Brian and Aunt Sue's house, Juan Pablo promptly took off his pants and made himself comfortable.

We had a great visit with everyone in Brian and Sue's beautiful home. Ana Luisa's first night away from home went very well, and she was ready for about 136 more rounds of "My Guardian Angel" as we continued on our trip the next day.

Chapter 2: Cousins

The second leg of our journey took us to Tio Karl and Tia Lindsay' s house in Naperville, Illinois. Juan Pablo was super excited to be reunited with his cousins Seth and Luke for an afternoon, having really bonded with them at our Christmas celebration. I think they were pretty excited to see him too.
We had a fun afternoon catching up, playing in the basement, having a great dinner and taking a walk all together. And then it was time to try to get a picture of the five cousins together...this is about the best we could do:

Chapter 3: This is the Day

We left Naperville that same evening to check into our hotel in Chicago. Thanks to Hotwire.com, we were fortunate to get a fantastic deal on a four-star hotel just half a mile away from Tia Jana and Tio Chad's place. Our room was on the 22nd floor, facing south. Since it was dark out by them time we got there, when we showed the kids the view all they could really see were lots of street lights, and a black space where Lake Michigan is. It was still exciting enough to cause Juan Pablo to jump on the bed and break out into song: "Este es el dia que hizo El Señor!" ("This is the day that the Lord has made!"). Despite all the excitement, both kids went to sleep at a reasonable hour, and woke up early enough for us to walk to Mass the next morning. After a post-Mass trip to get some donuts, we went on to Tia Jana and Tio Chad's to spend the rest of the day with their family. It was a cold weekend, but the kids were relatively good sports (especially once we pinned Ana Luisa's gloves to her coat so she couldn't take them off), and we even snuck in a trip to the park that afternoon...

The kids were enjoying getting to know their cousin Emma better, so we were glad to be able to spend some more time with Tia Jana and Emma the next day while Tio Chad was at work. We had fun at the Field Museum visiting some dinosaurs:


And playing in dinosaur footprints:

Apparently playing in dinosaur footprints together is a great bonding activity, because after that, Ana Luisa and Emma were inseparable. Tia Jana and Emma came to swim with us at the hotel pool that afternoon, and Ana Luisa was so excited to have two of her favorite things, water and Emma, in the same place at the same time. They had a great time playing "Humpty Dumpty" together. It has almost a month since our trip and Ana Luisa still repeats constantly "Agua. Emma. Fall!" I think she misses her new BFF.

We drove home on Tuesday, taking our time and making a few stops for our little girl who is still not great at the "road" part of road tripping. Aside from some moments in the car though, we had a great time together and all really enjoyed the trip.

Chapter 4: Birthday

The weekend after our Chicago trip was my 28th birthday. A few days before, Jeff took the kids to the dollar store, and gave them each a dollar to pick out a gift for me. When they came home, Juan Pablo proudly announced that he had gotten me a "net for catching flies". Fortunately he didn't completely ruin the surprise because I spent the next few days wondering if I was going to get a flyswatter or a butterfly net. From the description, it could have gone either way. The morning of my birthday, he couldn't wait to give me my gift, which turned out to be a red (his favorite color) butterfly net.

Ana Luisa had a bit of a hard time with this. As I learned later from Jeff, when they arrived at the dollar store, she very quickly selected a fake plant for me (even at such a young age she must sense how green of a thumb I have). Upon seeing Juan Pablo's choice though, she became extremely dissatisfied with her gift, and wanted to buy me the exact same thing he was buying. Jeff eventually convinced her to go with the plant, but the morning of my birthday, this didn't matter. As soon as Juan Pablo gave me the butterfly net, she dropped the plant and wanted that instead. This was a little hard for Juan Pablo because the butterfly net was A) my gift, and B) not even Ana Luisa's favorite color.

I was equally happy (and amused) with both gifts though, so hopefully I was able to adequately express my appreciation. The plant is proudly displayed on our kitchen table. The butterfly net is hidden in the closet because of the tension that it causes between the kids, though I have been enjoying it on my own time.

(Please note the kids' expressions in this picture. Ana Luisa is triumphant, having somehow secured the prized butterfly net for the picture, while Juan Pablo looks a bit forlorn to have been stuck with the plant...poor guy.)

Chapter 5: The Underwear Archives

A friend who recently caught up on reading my last few blog posts said to me, "I love how every picture of the kids is of them in their underwear!" I hadn't really thought about this until she mentioned it, but scrolling back through the pictures in the last few posts I had to laugh at this observation. Since Juan Pablo decided to start wearing underwear a couple months ago, this means he has also chosen to forgo wearing pants when hanging out around the house, partly because it makes things easier, and partly because that allows him better showcase whatever awesome characters happen to be on his underwear that day. And if Juan Pablo is not wearing pants, chances are, neither is Ana Luisa.

We've had some slightly warmer weather in the last couple weeks, which means the kids have been spending a little more time outside. And even at barely above 40 degrees, neither of them seems to think pants are a necessity. Fortunately legwarmers seem to be ok. So here is one more picture for the Underwear Archives:
Really, with that sort of cuteness, who needs pants?