My Motherland

“Yo soy un hombre sincero
De donde crece la palma,
Y antes de morirme quiero
Echar mis versos del alma"- Jose Marti

This past week Omar’s parents and sister went to Cuba.  Now before I get all sappy I want to stress that I have only visited the island once, so I am no expert.  Omar has his entire family over there, all his uncles, aunts and cousins.  I have some family over there as well.  Luckily and insanely odd our families are both from the same town.  Now it may not sound like such an odd rarity to some, but Artemisa is not that big of a town.  I mean it is not Havana...but no Puerta La Guirra. For some of you I may as well be talking Chinese (so sorry). 

So0o0o0o0o... back to the topic at hand.  My in-laws got back to Miami tonight.  With them my great aunt sent me a letter in response to some pictures I sent her.  I really get teary eyed every time I think about it.  My grandmother gets to see her sister every five years, more or less depends on when she gets approval to visit the US.  Her youngest brother she has not seen in about 30+ years.  I get all annoyed when I go two weeks without seeing my brother, could not imagine one year much less thirty.  The older my grandparents get the more I get emotional about it, for the obvious reasons. 

When I visited back in 2009, it was such a surreal experience.  I was born an American, but raised a Cuban.  I  think that the only other culture in the US I could compare it to is Italian- American culture.  But it really is so different I think.  As most Cubans born in the states we are told about the wonders of the island our parents left behind.  It is almost like a forbidden destination.  Pretty impossible to explain if you do not really understand the history of that delightfully crazy island. 

Part of my heritage is based upon certain things that I feel only Cubans would get.  One is the patron saint of the island, La Caridad del Cobre.  Ok quick little info she is a Virgin Mary statue that was found in the bay by 3 men caught in a storm after praying for her protection.  There really is more to it, but ummm...click here for a history lesson.  My grandmother was born on the day she is observed on, and also named after her as well.  I was always aware of her but not like I had a shrine to her or anything.  In Miami there is a very beautiful church that was erected in her honor when she too came to the states.  Before you write off my madness...just don’t be too judgy.  About 2 or 3 months before Omar and I met I was having some drama and asked her for guidance and just to help me choose a good path.  I believe she sent Omar to me...both of them.  When Omar and I were not getting pregnant I prayed for her blessing...she sent me little Omi and later blessed us with Aiden.  Why am I rambling on about La Ermita?  Well because this past visit my in laws brought me back a little wooden statue of her with some sand from el cobre (black sparkly).  The corniness is likely overwhelming, but I am so happy to have her in our home.  Not to mention that she is a native, made by hand...truly authentic. 

Although the picture is slightly distorted and makes my head look cartoony, I thought I would still share.

Here she is my little Cachita <3

With all that blabbering out of the way, I am glad to announce that this week we are going to take Aiden to get his passport.  Because we will be visiting the motherland this fall. 

Busy Bee

Lately I have been pretty with baking.  I have had a wedding cake, oodles of cookies, and lots of lovely birthday cakes. 

The wedding cake, although looked awesome once completed and built was quite the head ache.  Luckily my dad helped me deliver it.  I really am not a fan of butter cream frosting being used on such a large cake.  Definitely not as easy to work with as fondant.  The finished product looked really good, but OMG what a delightful mission.

The next sets of cakes and cookies were back to back weekends of two cousin’s birthdays.  The first was a Little Mermaid themed birthday, with matching cookies.

The next was a Snow White themed birthday.  I really enjoyed making this cake for our friends Ana and Adrian’s little one’s first birthday.  For those of you Disney buffs, the cake is suppose to mimic her gown.  I also made cookies, but looking back I did not take any pictures of the cookies.  I did however get pictures of the cutest cupcakes shaped as apples. 

 

 

And for those of you who are curious, I have already started brain storming for Omi’s Lightning Mc Queen birthday themed cake.  And soon the preparations start :0)

Miami Ink

Back in February of 2006 (yes just a little over a month after we got married)  Omar and I got wedding bands tattooed on our ring fingers.  Obviously looking back on it, yes I knew Omar and I were crazy in love with each other but it was a pretty intense thing to do so early in our marriage.  I know you are wondering why?  And it really was because (as you all know) Omar was playing baseball and could not wear his wedding ring while playing.  ::LIGHT BULB:: tattoos cannot be taken off.  So I shared my brilliant idea with Omar and he agreed, and said since it was such an awesome idea I should take my own advice and get one as well.  My tatt is pretty much always covered by my rings, so no one ever really knows it exists...much like my other tatts (SUPER lower left back and front hip).

So fast forward five years later, it was time to get some more ink.  I had tinkered around with idea of getting something new but not sure on what or where I would go ahead with it.  Omar also wanted to get a "real" tattoo.  He was back and forth about what to get, although he knew he wanted it to be related to the boys. Again "tah-tah-dah-dah!"  Yvette to the rescue (lol!).  I thought it would look cool to get a foot print of each boy walking up his back.  We used the foot prints they took at the hospital- oh so cute and tiny.  I also wanted to have them represented on ME too, I picked a some what more subtle Celtic symbol of motherhood, with the dots representing each one of my boys. 

And without further adieu, I present to you our newly acquired ink.  the pictures are right after they were done so they look super red and swollen.  They are fully healed now, but I don’t have any recent pictures after the scabbing, plus we both have to have them retouched just to fill them in.

  

And just because I thought this story was pretty funny, I wanted to share.  A couple of days ago Omar’s dad gave the boys this super huge play set which included all sorts of cool accessories from an octopus to a submarine, and a bunch of figurines to match.  While Omi was taking the pieces out and loving life as he played with all the newly acquired toys, he turns to me and says with a huge smile on his face "Mama!  LOOK!!! A Papa toy!"

OMG... I know you are dyeing of laughter.  I sure did.

Sunday Fun Days

So sorry I have not been able to update recently.  I feel like we have been non stop all over the place.  When O is not coaching, we are running errands or I am baking...but I am super happy to say that we have managed to keep Sundays as our family day.  It is so important to me that we have those family moments, which with our baseball world is not always at normal hours.  Family outings consist of morning gym adventures, pizza buffet lunches, and of course watching Papa coach the boys.  Just recently our Sundays have been back to back with birthday parties, BBQs and none other than Disney on Ice!  Aiden was so excited to see Mickey, clapped and was dancing the entire show.  Not to mention how he started screaming out for Mickey during intermission.  Omi was dying to run down and skate with Buzz Lightyear and Woody.  Watching the little ones soak it all in is the best part of being a mommy.  My heart melts with them every day.  I know I say it all the time, and must sound like a broken record...but OMG! I was born to be a mother.  Nothing in this world I could ever imagine to more fulfilling them than having them in my life.  When Omar and I were married I never imagine I could feel more connected to a person than I do with my husband, and than I was blessed with my two little monsters.  Cheesiness, my heart flutters at the thought of them.  Amazing how such little people have such an epic affect on a person’s life.

Omar’s photog skills at it’s finest!

 

One of the MANY birthday parties we had the delight in attending was to a really new and cool spot in the design district, Play In.  It is actually a sensory play location they use for therapy during the week.  On the weekend they rent it out for birthday parties.  They have ball pits and even a zip line!  Even Aiden got to join in on the fun...big Omar may or may not have done the same (lol)!

**videos coming soon!**

The world DULL does not exist in my world

So there are always moments when my children keep me on my toes.  I am constantly bellowing "Omi? Aiden? Where are you guys?"  For the most part Omi usually lets me know what is going on if they are not within sight.  He really is so awesome, I even ask him where Aiden is and he will look for him like the good little boy he is.  My little guy, growing up so fast.  Becoming more and more independent as the days go by.  And than there are moments which make me so glad to own a camera.

This year Omi loved the fair!  Was so excited to ride all the carnival death traps they call rides.  Not to mention the mini tantrums which followed the "I’m sorry he is not tall enough".  For the most part he was loving everything about the fair this year.  Thank goodness, because last year he would get hysterical at the idea of climbing upon any of those metal contraptions.  Aiden is much more adventurous than big brother was, he rode the Tilt-A-Whirl and even went down on the giant slide loving life as he laughed the entire way down!  Oh to be young...