And REAL life will soon begin...!

What do you mean, you may ask? Well, my Mama, who has been here since we arrived in Rochester pretty much, leaves on Friday. Oh boy....who knows how things will go. It has been so helpful to have someone to focus on Sebastian or hold sleeping Matteo, clean up after dinner and hold the chupi (pacifier) in Matteo's mouth in the car. I know we will "re-adapt" to being just the three of us during the day, but she sure will be missed. =( I know that by God's grace, I will make it through each day, because they sure can be trying lately! We will have a visit from Nana and Papa this weekend, so that will delay the crash into reality a few days more, but Monday it will be just us! Please keep us in your prayers! For now, enjoy seeing some of the things we've been up to in our new city.

Enjoying an afternoon entertaining Matteo.

Our building had their annual picnic last week and Sebastian loved playing with all the balloons that were out for the festivities.

Matteo's first visit to the zoo.

Elephant!

Our zoo pass from Melbourne is good here too, so we hope to visit often.

This is the building where Paul works now.

Matteo in his Harris Corp shirt. All new babies get one and if you send in the picture they put it up on their intranet. Proud Daddy was more than happy to do that!

On Sunday, we had a wonderful visit from an old San Pedro Scripture Camp friend Fr. Jonathan. He happened to be taking some courses about 2 hours away, so Father and Brother Roberto, his roommate, came to spend the day with us. Sebastian quickly found a new friend to play with. It was really funny, because the night before we were reading his bible stories and I found a picture of Jesus wearing a long gown, similar to the habits I knew they'd be wearing as Franciscans. I was trying to explain to him that my friends were coming to visit and they were Jesus' friends, etc. so he wouldn't be concerned when he saw the habits. Well, he had absolutely no problem with it and has been asking for "Chachi's friends" (Jesus' friends) everyday since!

Our family with Brother Roberto and Fr. Jonathan. We had a great home Mass and both boys behaved beautifully. Hard to believe we had not seen each other in 7 years!

Sebastian loves to help Daddy give Matteo a bath.

Look Mami - it's your shoes!

Playing playdoh snowmen with Abuelita.

Going shopping at Wegmans with Barney.

Matteo sitting in his bumbo seat, enjoying the views from the apartment.

Besitos de Abuelita!

I love this picture. We are going to miss Abuelita. Our September visit can't come soon enough!

Mami with a smiling Matteo!

Weekend in Michigan and BIG NEWS!

Last weekend we drove 5 1/2 hours through Canada to go visit Nana and Papa and family at the cottage in Michigan. We left on Thursday around 6 pm and got there around 11:30 so we were really happy with our time - and especially happy that we got through both borders with no wait. Whew! Sebastian stayed awake until the last 30 minutes - we couldn't believe it. He was just singing and talking and chatting away. We had a great time seeing all the family.

On the Silva front - my brother Daniel and wife Emily had their sonogram on Friday and..... It's a BOY! Yippie! I guess I am partial to boys, having two, but it is also so exciting that we will have another one running around so close in age to his cousins. They are going to have so much fun. Matteo and Baby Silva will only be 9 months apart. Wow! Also, my brother just landed his DREAM job. He will be a diagnostic technician (I think that was the position...) at the Toyota hub for the Southeastern US. The only tricky part is that the job is in Jacksonville...so a move is emminent, although the details haven't all been worked out.

Picture of Sebastian and Matteo's first Silva cousin!

Seeing the beach at the cottage! He was so excited to see the agua!

Matteo's first visit down to the beach.

In the AGUA!!

Running up and down the hills was a favorite activity. It was great because he also got over his frustration at falling during this trip since he would trip and fall so often as he ran outside. Now he just gets up and keeps going!

Wading in the lake with Daddy.

Talking on Papa's cell phone. He has whole conversations now that only he can understand.

VIDEO - Scarey Monster PJs! He has these PJs with a TV character on it, but he doesn't watch that show, so luckily we were able to convice him to wear them and pretend he was a monster! He had a blast scaring everyone in sight!

At the playground on the farm.

Matteo and Mami raspberry picking. Yummy!

Holding the basket for his berries.

Picking berries. He had fun picking but wouldn't even try them. What a shame. More for me!

Look at those beautiful sweet cherries!

Cherry picking! He liked this even better because he got to put them in a big bucket. Again, he wouldn't eat any of them. Maybe next summer.

Weeee...at the park on the beach.

This man had a little pony and Sebastian was fascinated with it. He even touched it!

Twins Maddy and Ashton meeting Matteo for the first time. They liked seeing the baby.

Up the hill!



VIDEO - Sebastian Running at the Cottage. He always had to count to 10 and then RUN!

Sisters with some of the grandkids.

Mami's and the babies!

Playing with Nana in the tree.

Sebastian loved playing in this tree. And it made for some great photos. =)

I think this is one of my favorite photos. We were just singing songs and playing on the hill.

Besitos for Mami.

Maddy in the tree.

Hugs for cousin Emma. She was less than thrilled with Sebastian's constant affections. He really liked his cousins.

Playing with cousins!

Enjoying the beach with Matteo. Everyday was beautiful.

My little explorer.

Our family.

With Abuelita.

With Nana.

Touch it! Touch it! Always wanted to touch the water.

So much so that at one point he lost his shoe in the lake which Nana jumped in to rescue and Sebastian was distraught and screaming about his shoe. It was all pretty funny. Sebastian's still talking about it.

Soooo happy! He loved being at the lake.

Mr. Blue Eyes flashing a smile.

Do I look like Papa?!? I love the look on his face.

Can I take your ducks Aunt Debbie?!? We went to go visit Debbie and Fritz's beautiful garden.

Sebastian enjoyed chasing after Sophie.

Not sure I like this! He had quite the pouty face, but then just fell asleep.

Crossing the Blue Water Bridge from Michigan back to Canada. Sebastian likes bridges and everytime we cross one he says "bridge, bridge!" But it sounds more like b*itch, b*itch so we always laugh.

So sweet - Sebastian reading a book to his baby. He loves Matteo so much.

We had a great time on the trip and hope to be back soon!