Christmas day was calm. Noah woke them up at six o'clock and excitedly opened a stocking and two small presents that they'd brought as well as a present from his grandmother and great-aunt.

Noah had quite a few gifts waiting for him back home in New York, but the boy was more than happy enough to wait for those. Still, they wanted to do a little something for him on Christmas morning. They ended up spending the day in Kendall with his family, eating leftovers, relaxing and generally taking it easy.

The next couple of days were spent at Lincoln Road Mall, Little Havana, Miccosukee Indian Village as well as at FunDimension and Santa's Enchanted Forest. Rafael's aunt and surrogate uncle had joined them at the Indian Village and his mother had joined them at all of the excursions except Lincoln Road and FunDimension.

They'd all gone out for dinner the night prior as well, opting to go out to eat at Vero Italian, a rather kid-friendly Italian restaurant that was right downtown.

Tuesday, however, was the hottest day they'd had since arriving. It was 82 degrees Fahrenheit out, so it was definitely a shorts, sandals, and t-shirt kind of day.

Everyone woke up after Rafael, so by the time he was dressed and downstairs, the kids were already eating breakfast as was Olivia.

Olivia glanced up from whatever it was that she was reading. It was most likely the news if he had to hazard a guess. "Good morning," she said, smiling warmly.

Noah spoke with a mouthful of cheerios. "Morning, Papi."

"Morning you two," he replied. "And no talking with your mouth full, Noah. It's gross."

Olivia eyed Noah. "It really is."

Noah swallowed and looked at Rafael and Olivia sheepishly. "Sorry."

Rafael then turned to face Sofía who had, at that point, stopped eating her cheerios and was now playing with them. The seventeen-month-old smiled up at Rafael, small green eyes sparkling with contentment. "¡Papi!" she exclaimed, having recently made the switch from papá to the same diminutive that her big brother used. "Becho." Un beso. (Daddy! Kiss.)

He stroked the little girl's head gently before leaning in and giving her a quick kiss on the forehead. "And good morning to you too, mi princesa."

The seventeen-month-old girl giggled happily.

Pouring himself a cup of coffee, Rafael then grabbed some bread and butter and sat down at the kitchen table. He took a sip of his café con leche and gestured to what Olivia had resumed reading. "Anything interesting?"

Olivia gave a little shrug. "Not really." She put her phone down. "Though, the weatherman was definitely not wrong about the weather today."

"Yeah," he agreed. "It's definitely warm out."

Apparently, Sofía had decided that she'd eaten her fill because she started to bang on the table of her highchair in order to get their attention. "All gone."

"Alright, Sof." He immediately got up to take Sofía out of the highchair like the little girl clearly wanted. "Come and sit on my lap."

Sofía nodded as he moved to pick her up, the little girl immediately snuggling up to Rafael once he was seated back down again with her on his lap.

He smiled, glancing down at his daughter. "Someone is feeling cuddly today."

Sofía giggled. "Cookie."

He rolled his eyes at the little girl in fond amusement. "Maybe later, you silly girl. Cookies aren't for breakfast."

"Well, I like her idea," Noah said with a cheeky grin.

Olivia shot their son a tickled look. "You would, you little Cookie Monster."

Noah smirked before shovelling another spoonful of the Honey Nut Cheerios he was having for breakfast into his mouth.

Rafael shook his head in fond exasperation.

"What are we doing today?" Noah asked in between spoonfuls of cereal.

"Well," Olivia jumped in to explain, "since your grandma is going to Hialeah today to visit some friends of hers and it's so hot out we thought we'd go to a waterpark. How do you feel about that?" They'd thrown ideas back and forth but decided to go with a day at Paradise Cove Water Park rather than at the beach.

"Cool!" Noah said with a big grin. "When are we going?"

"In about a half-an-hour," Olivia told the eight-year-old. "We have some things to do before we go and it's a bit of a drive."

"Okay," Noah said. "Where is it?"

"Pembroke Pines," Rafael explained to the boy. "It's a city in southern Broward County. It's not too far, though. The park's only a half-hour drive from here."

Noah nodded, eyeing Olivia. "Can I have more cereal?"

"Sure," she replied, not seeing an issue with it. "But only take what you think that you're going to actually be able to eat."

Noah gave a little nod. "Okay, Mom."

Once they finished eating breakfast, Olivia sent Noah to get dressed and Rafael quickly did the dishes while his wife made sure that what they needed to take to the park with them was packed and they were good to go.

They got to the park for opening, intending to stay until lunch. Neither he nor Olivia was expecting the kids to want to stay much longer than three or four hours.

They enjoyed the Crazy Creek and Paradise Pipeline but honestly spent the majority of their time in the Sharky's Lagoon. Although, while Rafael took Noah to one of the Paradise Pipeline slides, Olivia took their daughter to Parrot's Point for a bit.

Once they were all water-parked out, so to speak, the family of four headed back to the vacation home in downtown Miami. Rafael then threw together some Medianoches and mariquitas for an easy lunch, Noah immediately asking to have some Materva to drink with it. Rafael did cut up Sofía's sandwich into small bites, however, and gave her some sliced banana instead of the slightly harder fried plantain chips.

After they ate, Rafael changed Sofía and put her down for her nap while Olivia did the dishes and tidied up the kitchen.

The little girl was overtired and didn't really want to go down for a nap, but, thankfully, it didn't take terribly long for Rafael to get her to calm down.

Sofía threw a pretty good tantrum as he put her to bed, but she finally started to relax as Rafael was finishing the lullaby that he was singing. She wasn't entirely calm yet though, so Rafael continued to sing it softly.

'Duérmete mi niña, duérmete mi amor

duérmete pedazo de mi corazón.

Esta niña linda que nació de día

quiere que la lleve a la dulcería.

Esta niña linda que nació de noche

quiere que la lleve a pasear en coche.

Duérmete mi niña, duérmete mi amor

duérmete pedazo de mi corazón.'

As he finished the lullaby, he smiled. Sofía had settled down and was out cold. She looked so peaceful. With her asleep, Rafael quietly made his way back downstairs, really not wanting to disturb her.

"Finally got her to sleep?" Olivia inquired as he took a seat beside her, joining her and Noah on the couch.

"Yeah," Rafael said. "The poor girl was definitely overtired." He glanced between both his wife and son. "So, what are we watching?"

"Paddington 2," Noah stated happily.

He grinned. "Great."

Wrapping his arm around his wife, Rafael gave Olivia a quick kiss and smiled as she gently rested her head against his chest, the three of them all turning their attention back to the movie that was just starting to play.