Ciao Chico

The kiddos had their 18 month visit up in Chico yesterday. It was a bittersweet trip for us. We said our official goodbye to our pediatrician and his wonderful staff. They were amazing and we will miss them very much. But, I have to say, I will not miss the almost 4 hour drive round trip we make for those check ups!!

The kids were very proud of themselves to walk up the big steps and right into the office. They love the toy school bus and immediately starting squealing and chasing each other around it. This made us, yet again, the center of all attention. The office staff was peeking around the corner to see them and cracking up at their silly interactions. I turned around to put something in the diaper bag and look back to see Pais ON TOP of the bus trying to climb over it. Well, I asked her to get down and tried to reasonably explain that we don't climb on this toy. Yeah, that didn't work :) So, I pulled her down myself. You'd have thought I did something completely horrible. She started pouty-face crying and squatting down (her fave tantrum position). Oh well. All good times must come to an end. For her, the appointment definitely did not get better! She hates anyone in her space, so she clung to me the whole time and was only soothed by the "Backyardigans" theme song which I promised would be in everyone's head by the time we left. Ellie was in her element seeing old friends and acting like she hasn't been the clingy one attached to my hip and saying "mommy" 50 times in one minute. She was showing off all of her words: slow, strawberry, sorry, oh no, I did it, etc. Coop was as chill as ever. He let the Dr. check out his amazing flexibility and just sat there with a perplexed look as his whole leg was put behind his head (it's really ridiculous). His favorite part was the poster with a helicopter and kept saying "hell-kaka" over and over. It was adorable.

Overall, I was so happy with their checkup. Here are the current weights:
Elia: almost 19 lbs ( I just couldn't write 18)
Coop: 21, 6
Pais: 22,12

The best part of the visit was seeing our dear friends, the Barelas! They ended up being there at the same time and invited us over for lunch. The kids played, danced and ran all their energy out for our car ride home. It was a long trip but a good one!