Easy Sunday

Today we had a treat. My boy IFP (Izzy From Patterson), his wifey (Monica my cousin), and lil' RFJ (Ryan From Jersey) came to the city to visit us. They showed up early so we could hang all day... And that we did.

First, had to make him some Cuban coffee... Start the day to right. Then it was off to Chinatown. I will spare you all the details but I will state that we messed it up down there at the Dim Sum place.

An interesting part of the day was when we were out shopping. Madison had just found "the" Hello Kitty doll that she had been looking for in this really cool store. I told her to keep looking for something but she told me that it was what she wanted. Now, if you know Madi, when she says "that's what I want"... She really means it. But I told her we would come back. As we leave she makes me promise her that no one will buy it from her and that I would go back and get it as soon as I could. I smugly tell her, "of course baby... I got this!". You can sense it already can't you?

We proceed to my favorite bakery in Chinatown (and Monica's too) that is right next to said store, where I indulge myself with a pack of Blackbean Hopia (don't ask). As we are exiting the bakery you can smell smoke... A lot of it. I walk out in the street to see where it is emanating from and bam, it is coming from the second floor of a shop a few stores down. Instant mayhem. Everyone is running, you can hear sirens going off, and the place is now in fully up in flames. We get the heck out of Dodge.

As we walk quickly down the streets, New York's Finest show up and begin to handle it. We just keep walking in disbelief... "dude, we were just there". After looking at some more stores, Madi reminds me about the doll and tells me, "they are still gonna have it right?" I look at her and reassure her that no one is gonna buy it from under her. This is Chinatown, where there is one there are millions. I tell Noemi that I might as well get it and a purse that Mia wanted. I head back to the store.

And what do you know, when I get there, the store was next to the one with the "fire" sale. They closed the store because of the fire commotion. Are you freaking kidding me? How the hell (at this point I am allowed to curse) does a store close in Chinatown? These people would stay open during a hurricane, during a tornado, during an earthquake, just to sell you some cheap trinket. But not a fire. I look at the store, which is chained up, gate down, and lights off in disbelief. I cannot show my face to my little girl. What would I say? I call Noemi and tell her the news. I mean I can always come back right? But what do I say after I promised her? I say, God's got this. I turn around and go look for Mia's purse that she wanted. As I am about to leave another store, I turn back around to see if maybe just maybe, they were going to open up. Mind you, there where 6 fire trucks in the street and everything is taped off. And I see the lady open the store. I run and ask her... "Please tell me that you are opening up again..."

"uh-va cooorse"

Enough said. Life is never dull for me. Heart attack avoided, baby meltdown avoided. When I show up with the doll, Madi was crying because she had over heard me freaking out over the phone. Never saw her smile so much. God must have done that so I could see that expression.

Blackbean Hopia... $2
Hello Kitty Doll... $18 (it's really cute)
Fire damage... $100,000
Hero to daughter... Freaking Priceless.

We ended the day at our apartment catching up with a good friend... over more Cuban coffee. It was a memorable Sunday again.

Daddy Day at Central Park!

Great News!

I started off the day with all the intentions of working out but when your little girl holds on to your arm and squeezes it tightly in the warmth of your bed... You don't leave. These moments seem to be fleeting me so I will take what I can. The WOD can wait.

Started the day by going to see Dr. Waner. You know, every once in a while our desires will line up with God's plan and that just gives you that extra happy feeling inside. As I am well aware that whatever He has planned for us is always in our best interest, it feels good to have something go the way you really would have wanted it to. Today was that day. When the doctor saw her, his eyes lit up and he told us that it could not have come out any more perfect. Whew. He emphasized again that the next time he should see her is when she's 14. Wow, could this really be the last one my little girl has to endure? Whatever He decides, but I would like it to be over.

After that, the girls were driving us crazy to go to ToysRus. I remember when my dad used to take us to PlayWorld on 49th Street and West 12 Ave... Straight up exciting. So we walked to Times Square and gave them a little shopping spree. They went crazy. I love it. They behaved so well there I wanted to get them more but I came to my senses.

Needless to say they played and played when they got home. I finally got to workout and after dinner we all watched a movie together. What a great day...

At the Dr. Waner's office today...

SHOPPING!!!

At peace...

Enter the Dragon

Well, the day started out later than my usual 5:30am... Thank God. I was tired and so was everyone else. After a good breakfast of bacon and eggs (quite delish if I don't say so myself), Mia and I got ready to spend the day together while Madi and mommy stay at home.

First stop was at the "box". I worked out for about 45 mins... Almost died... And then we took off to Chinatown. We did the usual... Eat, buy, laugh, eat some more, and laugh some more. I lost her sweater and then we tried to re trace our steps looking for it in a busy Chinatown with soooo many helpful people... NOT! We're known for our food, our ability to make all your households good for cheap, for our great gymnastic underage team, for our ability to make Nikes, but definitely not for hospitality! Jeeze... Talk about rude. Oh well, that's my peeps for you.

Me - "Did you happen to see a little red sweater?"
Chinese guy - "waaa you say"...
me - "Uh... Red sweater? Little? I think I left it"
Chinese guy - (ignore me)
me - "yeah, hey, thanks"
Chinese guy - "saw-reee, no see nuh-ting"
me to Mia - "sorry love, guess dads in trouble again with mom, I will get you another one"
Mia - "it's okay daddy, but you tell mom it was your fault right?"
Me - "yes... Figures your Chinese"
Mia - "what?"
me - "nuh-ting"...( sigh )

As for Madi, well she is just great. Doesn't complain about the pain or the situation. Her mind is focused on one thing... ToysRus. She keeps reminding me every chance she gets. Her wounds look good. Tomorrow we are off to see the doctor and to ToysRus. She got to talk to her Kuma ( my sister) and Aba and Pipo-uelo (Noemi's parents) through Skype... What a wonderful thing that is. Hit us up if you would like... Loukout01 is my user name.

Sent from my iPad

Killed it... came in second on the board for the half way point and about 6th overall... not bad!

Chilling in Chinatown!

Our favorite spot... regardless of the crappy service!

She's getting sooooo big!

Looking GREAT!!!!

Playing with some fake snow!

Once a joker, always a joker!

Game Time!

To say the least... It was an emotion filled day. Thankfully it started off much later than we normally do. We had to be there by 11am but because I am a preparation freak when it comes to this, my time to get there was 10:30am. We left with ample time to allow for snags and thankfully we did because some guy threw himself on the tracks of the subway shutting down the very necessary cross town L train. When we get there the nurse lets us know that the procedure is set for 2:30pm, but that it can happen at any time. So they tell us to go out and about but not to stray too far. Poor Madison couldn't eat anything or drink anything. So we left for a walk to find something to do. The kids got an internal GPS for play grounds and we find one a few blocks away. Right in the middle of play, we get the call to go back. Proceed to haul butt back a few blocks. "You left the sweater where???" as we are entering the hospital. Okay you go see the nurse I will double back... Thank God for Crossfit. Now they tell us we can't leave because it can happen any minute. All that was around noon. Mia and I got to escape for some lunch but Noemi didn't want to go when we came back for fear that they would call her in. Needless to say, Madi's questions became more and more frequent with every minute that passed. Right around 2pm, she broke down. Noemi sensed her feelings and helped her let it all out. And boy did she ever. Not but 5 minutes after she called down, the doctor came in. She found her silliness again, and proceed to be her normal self. You couldn't tell she was about to go into surgery. The doctor was still unsure what his plans were. When she was on the way up to the operation room, she was cracking jokes. What a clown. She said hello to everyone in the room, put on her mask, and went to sleep. No crying... All business. I rushed Noemi through lunch and when we got back 30 minutes later, nothing. As the hour mark hit, I told Noemi that for sure they did more surgery and 5 minutes later, in walks the doctor. Everything went fine and not only did they do a lot of laser but he redid the tip of her nose. He said, everything is done. When she turns 14, he wants her back so he can give her the nose of a super model! Guess that means this was the last one... For quite some time. As when walk in the recovery room, you can hear Madison screaming for us. She was not happy and in quite a lot of pain. They let her out of the ospital very quickly and off to the apartment we went. Oh, the doctor also told us that we might have to stay a few extra days due to the stitches... Great. When we to back, she threw up several times. After eating some great New York pizza though, she was back at her old self and ready to go. Mia was a champ the whole day. To be able to hang with us without complaining and really being quite the helper, was amazing. She is such a superstar. She is actually sleeping right next to me as I type. She took so much care of her sister. What a wonderful child she is. As for me, I am exhausted. I have walked so much my legs are killing me. And to add more pain, I did a full workout and ended it with a mile run through the city... Hills and all. Okay, I kind of cheated with the pizza but how could I let my little girl down?

Okay... Now the surgery has been a bit delayed.  Looks like we will be in at 2pm.  The waiting game has begun.  She is extremely nervous but in good overall spirit.  She keeps talking about ToysRUs... Lol
Sent from my HTC smartphone on the Now Network from Sprint!

First day done... Lots of questions.

As stated earlier, excitement was quite high. Madison no longer is a little girl that doesn't know what's going on. She is fully aware of the happenings and the situation. She is aware when people stare at her, she is aware of the pain that is to come, and she is aware that she will do fine. That there is the coolest part of all. She is excited. As soon as we landed you could tell it was going to be a special trip. The usual suspects asked to take us from the airport to our apartment but one guy stood out. He said he had a stretch limo. Now I know better than to trust the possible exagurration of a New Yorker but the price was close to the cab fare and a lot less hassle of standing out in the rain waiting in line. It really was a stretch limo... The kind used in proms, bachelor parties (I heard), and other things that would require one to have a gaudy vehicle to pick you up in. To say the least, mia and Madi were jacked up about it. It was nice to arrive in style. It was on Mia's dream list to ride one. We then went to go see the doctor. We were quickly reminded on how tough the world of vascular malformations can be. There were many children there that had other issues that dwarfed Madi's situation. it was tough seeing it but I can only imagine how many of our fronds and family saw Madison's case. Everyone adjusts. The doctor was very pleased to see Madison and her progress. He felt that there really wasn't any major things we needed to do to her but like he always says... "We shall see on the table tomorrow." He seems to be very pleased with how she has grown into it. We are too. The major thing that will be worked on will be a laser treatment to help smooth out her skin from the scarring. It's all in God's hands. So, no worries. After that, I spent some time doing their nails... Yes, me, not Noemi... Who do you think does your nails at the Asian mani and pedi place? That's right Asian men! I do it so I can spend some time with them doing things they love. If it was up to me, we would be fishing, but they do that with me too. Some pampering from dad never hurts. Then off to Chinese food. It was good but I gotta put a shout out to my place on flamingo road and pines blvd. They have nothing to fear, we do it real good in South Forida... I believe even better! But none the less, it was good. I will leave you with this. Madison is nervous. You can tell by the questions she asks. Keeps telling me that the doctor said it would only be laser... Right? She is always being reassured, that whatever he does, she will be fine. What a strong girl God has given us. So proud of her.

Fun in the plane...

She really is a lot of fun... She made me laugh so hard on the plane.  We have landed and we are off for a fun day of eating, playing, shopping, and hopefully a little crossfit.

And away we go...

We are at the airport and are ready to go to New York.  Excitment is quite high and we are all a bit nervous but we know that everything will turn out the way its supposed to.

Sent from my HTC smartphone on the Now Network from Sprint!

Puerto Rico

We haven't been here since 1995 when we had our honeymoon.  I will just share some pics from the place we are staying for the next couple of days before we head off to El Conquistador.

 View from the balcony

 Living Room and Kitchen

 Other Side of Balcony

Ralph and Maria at dinner

I am a lucky man!