Ode to Miami

A strange thing happened about 6 months or so ago.

I realized I liked Miami.

I know, I am a changed woman.  I am completely aware that for about 4 out of our 5 years in Miami I hated it here (at least 9 months out of the year, I did always like winter). But I think I finally realized - It was having three kids under age 2 that was hard - not just living in Miami.  In fact, probably having lots of babies was what made the first 4 years here really hard.  Miami definitely complicated that since it's not a suburban utopia of ease and convenience, but now that the kids are older and easier and I can finally breathe, I realize - wow, I don't want to leave here.

The other factor was the weather.  I mentioned to Ryan the other day - I think it keeps getting less humid each year we live in Miami.  In fact, that first year we moved here must have been a record year for humidity.  :)  Ok, or maybe I've FINALLY adapted, but the bad part is it will never be the same.  When I come back to visit, all my years of developing resistance to the humidity will have vanished with my Utah-parched physique.  Even my hair has finally given up looking quite as awful as it once did - or I've just adapted to that as the norm as well.  :)

So when I started saying I liked Miami a few months ago and even mentioned to Ryan, "Well, I'd be fine staying here longer," (and watching his jaw hit the floor), friends told me:  You need to put that in writing.  So here I am, in permanent typeface saying that I am so so sad to leave and yes, I actually grew to love Miami. I could stay here a few more years and be perfectly happy.

So over the past months I have thought and watched and tried to live it up, breathe in the air, drive with the windows down, and burn in my memory all the favorite things, the details, the nuances that made my experience here what it was, and all those little things that I will hold dear to my heart.  My friend that moved away from Florida a few years ago said they look back and feel like there time here was just a dream. Some extended vacation.  That's my fear.  I don't want to forget and I want it to be real, so here are some of the details I wanted to remember, the daily little things that I loved and will remember about Miami.

Driving over the causeway every morning to Cash's school with the bright sunshine, crystal blue water and beautiful Miami skyline. Seeing the cruise ships right across from his school in the Port of Miami and being jealous of all those people getting on the ship with the big Mickey Mouse on it.

And in short:  Water. Everywhere. The bay by our house, the waterways, the ocean.

Bridges.

Palm trees. Beautifully groomed streets lined with palm trees.

Mangoes. Come March my boys start asking when we start eating mangoes again.  They know that by May we will be eating mangoes in some form with nearly every meal.


Wild rainstorms.

The people.  Eh, alright, not totally, but they did keep it colorful.  :)  A few were memorable and noteworthy, however:

The crazy neighborhood schizophrenic, or running man as I called him.  He would just run up and down the streets and then stop abruptly as if he had no idea what he was doing and start doing something else.  I often saw him sweeping the sidewalks or throwing loaves of bread in the air for the birds.  

The bookmobile man (and the bookmobile in general).  Every week the mobile library van came practically right to our doorstep.  Books and movies we'd requested online magically showed up and it was the highly anticipated event for the kids every Saturday.  The man onboard was as stereotypically librarian as they come - slightly introverted, slightly nerdy, fairly quiet and shy - but he watched our kids grow up year after year, knew them by name, waited patiently when we were running to catch them at the last second before they needed to leave (almost every week),  held books longer than he should for us, magically did away with our numerous fines, knew when we'd been out of town, noticed when one of us was missing, and super awkwardly accepted our baked goods at Christmastime.  Aww, we'll miss that guy.  Hmm, whose name I'm not sure I ever even knew.

  

The pharmacist who knew my husband was a doctor, saw us through babies, croup, lice, and who knows what else.  While she wasn't particularly friendly, she probably knew more about us than anyone else in Miami.

The Publix bakery workers.  They knew all my kids (Ryan and I have realized we are infinitely more popular when our children are with us), and gave them free cookies every time we were there, and they fueled my addiction to their brownie bites and chocolate cigars.

All the characters at LA Fitness. Loved the cool Cuban spin instructor with all the tattoos who would crank up the music when (yet another) one of her favorite Latin songs came on and scream, "THIS IS HOW WE DO IT IN THE 305!!!!" Everyone always in their proper cycling place - the section of hilarious gay guys to my left, the super fit black dude in the front, the muscular Latin guy down the row from him who never stayed until the end of class, the section of Hispanic ladies talking the whole time behind me, and the chick with butt implants prancing around outside the window, while the old dude with short shorts who hits on everyone would stretch obnoxiously on the equipment next to her.  Yep, all there.

This dude.

The crazy guy named Dream who was always dressed in random costumes floating around the Children's Museum or being the MC for the school programs, dancing for the audience in between numbers and pulling audience members out for a dance-off.  How can you not be colorful with a name like Dream?

Our awesome swimming pool.

I don't think I can emphasize enough how much we love our swimming pool.  A walk-in, zero-entry pool with a great shallow end for kids and big enough to swim laps in. And lined with palm trees so you can find a shady spot almost any time of day. Oh how I will miss this pool.

The view driving down the street to our house.  Ours is up there on the left, the orange-ish color.

Our building:

Sunrise over the bay out our window...

And our apartment, just so I remember...

  

Evening walks in our park that's right outside our house.

Really just our park in general.  The crazy things that go on there.  Tight rope walkers, adult men acting like ninjas, free yoga in the park that I didn't partake of after the instructor gave me his own used water bottle I looked so bad (I seriously cannot work out in the Miami heat and humidity, I have no idea how all these people go jogging here at noon in the summer).

Actually all the awesome parks in Miami period.  Almost all of them have shade covers and are fenced in.  They are so pleasant.

Having something to get all fancy for.  Probably not so many swanky black tie events in Provo Utah.

  

Having a front desk.  Don't know why really, but we looked at a condo once with no front desk and I hated it.  I like having someone get my packages for me and hold them safely.  I like someone warning me when someone is here so I have one minute to get my clothes on before they reach my apartment.  And I like feeling a little safer in Miami that there are no less than about 7 staff members around all the time - and EVERYONE knows our family.  Nice for a mom who has spent lots of nights alone here with her kids in Miami.

The blurry figures running up and down the hallways outside our apartment for exercise.  The little guy always trailing behind trying to keep up with the big boys (and getting much better at it). Phoenix always mad that he can never beat Cash, the other children in the building who were so excited to join in the running whenever they saw this.  It made for a good homework break when needed to burn off some energy.

The good times my kids had together and all the happy memories we have of them being so young and such good buddies.  Not so big on friends here that we would replace family with them.  We just had lots of together time and I'm not sure that will be quite the same once we're nearer to family and friends.  I LOVE watching these 4 little guys together.

It's amazing that we've gone from this (our first month here):

To this....

  

SOUTH BEACH, SOUTH BEACH, SOUTH BEACH.


 

  

Our cool neighborhood.  We're right by the art district here - the largest outdoor graffiti museum in the world.  Street art on the walls everywhere.

And Fireman Derek - whose food truck I always go chasing down over in the art district for the best key lime pie in South Florida.

Little boys with long hair.  It's the norm here!  Thank goodness.  Now I have to go back to Utah and listen to everyone tell me to cut their hair.  (For the record, don't tell me to because you will make me upset.  :)

The Children's Museum - a huge part of our life here, not only because Cash's school was there but for all the playing we did before and after picking him up.

Hanging out with the "breakfast club" before school every morning at the playground and realizing only at the end of a year of friendship that we were comprised of a Mormon, a Latino, a stay-at-home dad, a Jewish mom and a lesbian couple. Makes you have faith that we're more alike than different when we don't put our differences in front of us and only recognize them in hindsight.

Finally hitting my groove and making some friends here.  Realizing how many nice people there were around and all the other great school parents from all over the world.  Even finding a group of moms to go hang out with on the weekends - even Cash's first grade teacher included!

Free Botox.  What.  I said it.  :)
(I don't think that stuff will be hanging around in a retina-only office.  :(

Visiting Ryan's work with the kids.

I'm pretty sure no other family considers "going out to eat" having hospital food (and being a treat at that).  :)  We got lots of laughs from co-workers that Ryan had brought the whole gang in for free hospital food.  Again.  But lots of smiles when people saw Ryan with his troop of boys trailing him around the hospital.

Flying right over our apartment every time we leave Miami and being able to recognize it from the air.

The coolness of Miami. Besides Will Smith's Welcome to Miami (which is remarkably accurate once you've lived here - $100,000 cars, everybody got 'em.... rainstorms ain't nothing to mess with...)  countless other singers croon (or rap, or yell, or cuss) about the 305 (yes I'll miss my area code), Calle Ocho, Dade County (ok, maybe those are all Pit Bull, but hello?  Flo Rida?  Why did that take me a year to catch on to his name?)

Anyhow, it's just fun to be somewhere happening. To see celebrity magazines full of stars hitting Miami Beach (why I never saw one famous person in my whole time there is beyond me). To be able to drive down the street down 10 blocks in the mini-van and park illegally cause no one cares anymore while I storm the streets with everyone else in Miami when the Heat win the championship. To have movies filmed in the park outside our house. To watch Step Up 3 and say - oh yeah, I watched them film that right in front of Cash's school.

Being cool by association.  Even though I'm still a stay at home mom with a van full of stinky kids, somehow it's way cooler cruising in a mini-van in  Miami Florida then it will be in um, Provo, Utah.

Being unique.  Nobody around me is like me.  When I bring snowman poop for bake sale (a.k.a. miniature marshmallows), people are snapping photos, texting their friends as I walk through the school.  In Utah blond, crafty and creative stay-at-home moms are a dime a dozen. (And no one here realizes you just have to Pinterest to come up with this stuff... so then I really seem ingenious.)

Kissing so many men that aren't my husband.  :)  Ha, just kidding (on the cheeks of course), but really, if I'm kissy kissy with your husbands know it's just a Latin thing.  I'm sure it will take me oh, like a day to realize that's totally awkward between two white people in the middle of Utah.

Even these girls, for as much work as they were! (I was involved with the Young Women at church for the last three years and man, it was a lot of work, but definitely rewarding.)

Throwing off the white balance in all my pictures with them.  :)  Every time I try to lighten a picture of them up so I can see their faces I'm so light in comparison I start to glow like I'm some angelic being....

Our atypical LDS ward here. The building that always had worms all over the foyer every week when we walked in (UGH all those creepy things that survive EVERYWHERE here!) Having lots of inexperienced people like us run the ward because there was no one else to do it.

FRIENDS!  It was like we had almost had extended family there by all our good friends that we hung out with that were almost like cousins to us.

And DEFINITELY these guys:

The photo that even made it on the news!:

  

   

We'll keep wearing that Miami HEAT decal on our car loud and proud!  I'm not sure anyone could win our hearts like the team just a few blocks down the street from us.... (Um, and it helps that they're freaking AWESOME.)

I wish I had more time to look back through the years of pictures and remember everything I love and pick out all my favorite photos.  I'm sure there is so much more, but with the chaos of moving and lack of time, this little snippet will have to do for now.

So as I sit here on the floor in an empty apartment, the place where I raised babies, spent sleepless nights, gained a few pounds, lost a few pounds, made friends and watched friends leave, laughed and cried, danced to Latin party music with the boys, ran in soaking wet from sudden rainstorms, watched my husband shine in his career, and the place where I grew into motherhood... I can't help but let the tears flow.  I keep asking Ryan to let us stay longer.  We already extended one day so I could have one last swim, one last beach visit, one last trip down Ocean Drive, but thankfully sleeping on the air mattress has finally given me the strength to let go and move on to the next chapter of my life.  :)   Thanks for the good times Miami.

And we're off...

The February Boys

(Overflowing excitement hearing the choo-choo coming.)

I wish I devoted more time to blogging what my kids are like at this stage in their lives. I know it's not the most entertaining for other people, but I look back and read through things of earlier blogs that I had totally forgotten - things they did, stages they went through.  (Too bad they didn't blog 40 years ago - my mom seems to remember that none of her kids ever threw tantrums like mine.)  For example, I seem to remember Diesel being pretty easy as a baby, but Ryan reminded me of the countless movies he watched on his iPhone while rocking Diesel in the rocking chair.  (I think that was his own fault though. I just put him in his crib and left him there. Sucker.)

Diesel has been our high-maintenance, fussy little prince since birth.  But no one would know unless they spent a day in our life because to the outside world he is in the charming phase.  He is intent on winning over everyone he encounters.  He may leap in front of the opening elevator door to greet you with a boisterous "HA-WOAH!!!" and a double arm wave,  or give you bashful grins then duck away and do this repeatedly until he's certain you think he's the cutest thing ever.

At home he continues to be the hulk - you can see the rage building until he throws over a chair, or runs out the door through the hall and bolts out to the parking lot (the naughtiest thing he can think of, that little stinker). In fact, I should have known better - the other day there was like a 5-lb bag of M&Ms open in the shopping cart with him as a means of bribing him to stop yelling throughout the entire grocery trip. I was stooping down looking for something on a bottom shelf and should have more consciously registered the shoes that went flying out of the cart and the increasing volume of madness. But no, I didn't, and sure enough, pretty soon I hear a big pshhhhhhhhh - as the contents of the entire giant bag of M&Ms gets turned upside down and violently shaken out all over the shopping aisle floor.  It was audible enough that no less than 10 people came running to see what on earth had happened. Sigh. Thank goodness he's not a twin.  :)

He spends lots of our one-on-one time together whining and I'm usually relieved when the twins get home from school and help keep him entertained. He seems to be too - he cries for his brothers all morning long, which is actually quite sweet: "Cashy...." boo hoo, "Ah-ton...."  boo hoo, sticking out of lower lip. To his credit, he does have to spend an awful lot of time getting shuttled around in the car from one school drop-off across town to another. (This is a frequent face):

But when he's in his charming mode he's adorable and I remember why it's so much fun to have a little one around.  He brightens up everyone's day, makes everyone laugh and is constantly entertaining. He has a lot of personality, is expressive and excited, loves dancing, and can be quite the ham. He has referred to his feet as "stinky toes" for as long as he could talk.  And he has refused to acknowledge there is more than one twin for the majority of his life.  They have both simply been known as "Ah-ton." For the longest time when we tried to say that's Phoenix he'd practically roll his eyes and walk away irritated that there was clearly only one of them and he wasn't about to acknowledge anything we were saying.

Mr. Personality is also very independent. The other day I walked in to see him grabbing another 5-lb bag of M&Ms - (the one that did make it home safely with the buy one get one free deal) and loudly calling over his brothers with an excited, "GUYS!  DINNEW!!" (dinner!) very proud that he had solely been responsible for dinner.  He really has been an independent kid - I remember one day when he was just over

a year I heard Phoenix freaking out - "Mom!  Gross!  Diesel just threw up all over!" But Diesel had calmly just gone over and gotten some wipes and was very maturely just cleaning himself off. He also loves imitating his brothers - for better and worse and has been caught doing a dead impression immediately following whatever older brother just folded his arms and stomped off with a "HMPF!" and a defiant nod of the head in my direction.  But it's also stinking cute to see him line up with the other three to jam to "That's What Makes You Beautiful" when they play just dance (and getting most of the moves right at that). And he loves doing the naked run-around with his brothers before bath time.  They even have a song for it.  Must be a boy thing. And he loves to scream a very irreverent "AMEN!!!!" at the end of family prayers sending all the boys into a running screaming tizzy.

He is also a total bottle-addict.  I nursed him for a year but added in bottles as the nursing declined and they've stuck around ever since.  He would much prefer drinking anything out of a bottle than a cup and his blanky and baba are consolation for any woes and seem to do the trick when sending him to day care at the gym or the nursery at church. Diesel can spit out a whole mouthful of jibberish when he has a lot to say (or is mad at us), and continues to adore his dad and beg for "baby ba bides" (piggy back rides) when Ryan comes home.Keeping up with the older boys has made him more adept at everything than any of the other boys were at this age. He can run and jump and kick a soccer ball better than any of them could at age two and he even holds a pencil better than Phoenix.

And he our snuggler, which of course we adore. One day in church he left our bench and wandered around the church scanning over the crowd until he found the right target - a gray haired cozy-looking old Haitian lady (that I'm sure we've never even spoken to before).  He stopped in front of her, held his arms up and proceeded to lay his head down on her shoulder and snuggle up for a good few minutes.  When he was done, he left her bench, wandered around again, found a nice middle-aged Hispanic woman and did the same.  It was adorable.  And amusing.  You can sure make up for a lot of mischief when you come snuggle up to mom or dad after whatever crazy antics you might have been up to.

The twins are cute and fun and absolutely un-cuddly. They claim to be "allergic" to princesses, and everything else abominable (like whatever dinner I've made that is currently sitting in front of them).  They still play together so well for the most part and seem to be better at the creative play than Cash was (I think their school has to do with this, but their writing isn't nearly as good as Cash's was at this age - also which I blame on their school).  They struggle terribly with articulation and I've spent months trying to get them the free speech therapy through the state since our insurance won't cover it but it hasn't happened yet.  They are, however, phenomenal readers for their age and Phoenix will bring home a Magic Tree House book from the book mobile and breeze through it in one day.  (I think Cash who is a more resistant reader was finally feeling the pressure of getting shown up by the little brother so he came home from the bookmobile and read five of them in a day last weekend). With their articulation though, it makes me laugh so hard that they can read all these sophisticated words - sounding like they're speaking baby talk.

They really are so much like me I laugh sometimes - besides looks, they definitely got my love of food (the kind where I can tell they just can't get it out of their heads sometimes), and they even have love handles already just like their mom always has. And I can see they're not going to be the most agile athletes - just like me at that age.  :)  (Cash on the other hand has the much more moderate attitude towards food like Ryan,  the same lanky skin-and-bones build that Ryan did growing up and is much more wiry and agile.)

Ashton is my meticulous and cautious one. He wants everything done perfectly, lined up correctly and colored with great precision. He wants me to be with him in any new situation or circumstance where he feels shy.  He idolizes the "boy missionaries" at church and comes home and writes them letters every week and fills boxes with pictures and stuff to make packages for them.  When we told him to give them to the missionaries at church though, he became totally starstruck and shy and couldn't go near them.  :)  Ashton is also my child with NO volume control and frequently speaks to me at the top of his lungs when I am an inch from his face.

Phoenix is far more reckless and will try anything on his own, march into any situation on his own, and is my requested substitute for me when Ashton is feeling shy and wants someone to go with him somewhere. When Ashton is reading and comes to a word he doesn't know he totally stops and won't go on. When Phoenix does he just plows through it saying whatever he thinks it is or makes it up.  It's just funny to watch their different personalities.  Phoenix also loves getting massages and trying to keep up with Cash in everything. He loves exercising on our elliptical and can do Just Dance for hours. He has always been the feisty one and this definitely comes out in his temperament. He can scream his face off for any length of time without tiring and will hurl projectiles at me when I try to open his bedroom door in an attempt to get him to stop.  Let's hope that gets channeled into something productive when he grows up.

And while they're much easier than they used to be, the crazy antics haven't totally disappeared. A few weeks ago we went to our local Target.  It is situated in kind of an outdoor mall with a parking garage in back of it and one road with some parallel parking in front of all the street-level shops.  I had parallel parked in front, and trying to ensure safety while I got out the stroller to put Diesel in, I had instructed the kids to go stand at the tree on the sidewalk just to make sure they weren't near the road.  As I am buckling Diesel in the stroller, I see some teenage boys walking by behind the car and can tell they're looking at the twins and smiling.  Aw, I think to myself, even these tough teenage boys can't help but smile at the cute-ness of my identical twins.  As I walk to the back of the car, I see Phoenix and Ashton zipping up their pants.  "What are you doing??!" I blurt out.  "Were you just PEEING right here?? 5 feet in front of Target and all these other storefront windows?!?"  "But mom, you told us to."  "What...?  I...  NOOOO, I told you to STAND by the tree, not PEE on it!"  Goodness, when you're five years old standing in front of a restaurant window that's a little borderline public exposure rather than cute.  :)



The twins are both so sweet with Diesel and take turns getting him to play with them.  They currently can play for hours with their stuffed animals, love legos and Ninjago and Legends of Chima, and anything else their older brother thinks is cool.

And seriously I think these cap-and-gown pictures are so silly for Pre-K but Ashton never takes good pictures (he always scrunches up his nose giving him this gummy smile), so I couldn't believe he took better pictures than Phoenix this time (usually our photogenic one). 

Ashton:

Phoenix:

I'm sad to see my babies growing up so fast!

Birthdays

February (yes, always behind) is when the birthday craze begins at our house.  3/4 of my children have their birthdays within 4 days of each other, and my husband gets the raw end of the stick (is that a phrase?  raw end of the deal?  short end of the stick? whatever), having his birthday 4 days after that when I'm already birthday-ed out.

If you're not on facebook and you missed my most successful cupcakes ever, no worries, I'll repeat :)

I was super excited that something I made actually turned out as cute as the one ones I was trying to imitate, and about died laughing when my niece sent me back this picture she had seen after looking at mine:

Wow are you really giving me both of these??

The perfect excited face when opening the talking Cookie Monster toy.

Then the twins got Angry Birds festivities. First there was the festivities in pre-school.  A few games like "Do You Love Your Neighbor?"

Angry Birds ring toss:

 I'll admit, I sort of shove my kids in the direction of a birthday party I feel like throwing.  And there happened to be an Angry Birds costume on clearance and so I thought, hey, human pinata.  Sounds perfect.  Until I told Ryan it was him.  And that he was going to get whacked with a pool noodle.  As the furrowed brows deepened and the why-do-I-always-get-stuck-with-this-stuff look became more intense, the response came that simply put - you plan the parties, you get to assign roles.  Enough said.