Enjoying the spirit of the season

This semester was so overwhelming for me...I'm mentally and physically exhausted. I've had no time for anything non-essential and that means we got to the beginning of December without any Christmas gifts. So it came out of necessity, but it has been so pleasant that I think we may continue it...we've stepped out of commercial Christmas for the most part this year.

When someone called us to ask what we would like, we said, how about we don't exchange gifts this year? We're not doing a card, facebook will suffice this year. We're going on vacation with my family in lieu of gifts for those who are closest to us. I've made more charitable donations. And we did buy a few things over the internet--but only a few and the people and things have been very carefully chosen.

The result? We have one gift under our tree and I don't expect that to change...but we've taken walks with Joaquin to look at Christmas lights, he rode his first merry go round at Knott's county employee day, and I spent Thanksgiving at the beach with Joaquin running around with Bailey. We have not set foot in a crowded store or mall and I am getting all zen and spiritual about it. I don't know how I'll feel Christmas day when we would normally be opening presents and there are none, but the lead up feels pretty darn good.

18 months

Joaquin is 18 months old. Well...he's now almost 19, isn't he? I am consistently late now and I guess that's ok. He's got an extensive vocabulary. I had not counted before his appointment, but that's a check box on the 18 month one and so I started counting when I got in the car: mama, daddy, dog, woof, car, bubbles, ball, ice, hohoho (yes..."what does santa say?"), car (his new favorite...he likes to shout this when he goes by one), poop (which refers to anything that's a mess on the floor or in his diaper), food, see, again, tea, pop, shoes, again...I'm sure I'm forgetting some. What's most impressive though is his use of sentences..."Did you see?", "Mama, does daddy see?", "My dog!", "Our car", (I say "Are you hungry?") he answers "For food?"

We're up to 11 teeth...the front 8 and 3 molars. I can see all 4 incisors popping their heads through and the last molar as well. He's up to 2'10" and 38 lbs. He has curls all over, which is unusual and I love that. I can now see why mommies don't cut their little boys hair...how do I say goodbye to those beautiful curls?

This month, he decided instead of fitting into things, he could start climbing on top of things by himself. This is him after he got into the rocker in his room all by himself...Gid comes out of his room and says, "Why'd you put him in the rocker?" and I say, "I didn't," so we go to look and there he is clapping for himself.

17 months

Another month where it is nearly closer to the next rather than the actual birthday! I did want to record my observations from the 16-17 month mark though. He got his first molar (bottom left) this month at 16.5 and already has his second (bottom right) right about now at 17.5. He started to talk alot more too, but with sentences that we can't understand. That's cute because he'll tell you something that you can't understand (Bah Dah Bum So?) and you'll say, "What's that buddy?" and then he'll just repeat it back to you the same way.


He continues to be mommy's little helper...he takes rags and wipes things down. This month though, the fun thing was that he decided he wanted to fit himself into things. You can see the beginning of this in this 16 month picture...that's him sitting in the firewood holder. He continued that and would even get upset when he couldn't get himself into things (one day we brought home a shoebox...not so much). Here are some pics of him fitting into things:

Halloween #2=Boo!

That's my clever play on words to express that Halloween #2 did not at all go the way we expected it to go this year. We had ordered Joaquin a 2T dog costume earlier in October because he likes dogs and when you ask him, "What does a doggy say?" He says, "Woof." So the whole purpose was to get him on camera in his dog costume saying woof. We also thought he might want to do a couple of houses trick or treating this year as he likes to walk around the neighborhood now.

We got an invite from a friend to go trick or treating in Pasadena and we thought, well that will be fun...Joaquin will like going out with the other kids. Mistake #1: we hadn't tried his costume on him yet. We try to put it on and he starts screaming...it is WAY too small...like WAY too small, there is no way he's getting in this thing. Then we go out and try to put him down to trick or treat and he starts screaming again...he doesn't know this neighborhood, there is no way he is going to walk, let alone go up to strange houses, even with mommy. We did get to put him down for one house that had 2 other babies, so he got a total of 3 pieces of candy for the night.

I'm making it sound worse than it is...we actually had a good time walking around with our friends...it just wasn't anything like we thought it was going to be!

Gideon is a studly triathlete

This past weekend Gideon completed another mini-tri. He did so great this year! 1:07...so under the 1:10 marker and a full 20 minutes shaved off of the time he originally did this! We all got up early to watch him and celebrated with our traditional dim sum afterwards.

Look how big Joaquin is! I was definitely feeling it Monday from carrying him around in the pack!

16 months old!

Joaquin is 16 months old this month. I get these developmental emails and this month's said something like, "Where did your baby go? You have a full fledged toddler on your hands these days!" and they are right. When he turned 1 and those emails changed from "Your baby" to "Your Toddler" that seemed really wrong...he was still very much a baby. But now he really is a toddler running all around the house, talking away, and having his own opinions on things.

He said thank you the other day without prompting, that was a proud moment! He is very interested in brushing his teeth. He has been watching us for awhile and imitating the sound of our electric toothbrush, but didn't like it when we tried to do his teeth, so this is a good step!

What started as coming over and putting his head on us has evolved into also taking pillows and putting them down to put his head on--very cute. He's also much more interested in figuring out how things work than playing with toys. So he had a music box the other day and he wanted to figure out how to get the horse off, that was much more important than playing with the box. He also likes to drum on everything. It's great fun to see what kind of sounds things make!

Food

I still like chocolate...













...but not as much as I like fruit....




























...or yogurt....



















...or dirt.

Future biker!

I recently bought a brand new bike for father's day and have been riding rather prolifically. Ever since then, I have been trying to find the right baby carrier seat so that we could take Joaquin biking. We ended up getting an ibert, specially because we like that he gets to look forward and I feel that I somehow encapsulate him for better protection. The seat is great because not only is it easy to install, his weight is directly on top of the handlebar stem, not the handlebar making steering very easy. We also finally found a helmet that he was willing to wear. He really likes when we go fast and we start doing some off road stuff - on/off sidewalks, nothing crazy. Now if I can only find Anjelica a bike.

Over a month! We've been busy!

I've been pretty good at keeping this updated and even managed to do his monthly birthdays when we've gotten very busy. We're over a month on this posting though and I have obviously missed his 15 month birthday! I'll try and re-cap although things move so quickly...I went back to see where he was at 14 months and I thought to myself, "Airplanes and helicopters? Surely he has been doing that more than a month and a half! It is so much a part of who he is...a month and a half?!?!"

Ok, so at 15 months we have mastered climbing up stairs although he still asks for help going down stairs. He practices letters quietly to himself (ssss, ffff, and last night, pppp). He has started to put his head down on people to show them he loves them (I love this, there is nothing so endearing as him walking over, putting his head on you with a smile, and then going about his merry way). He has become quite adept at figuring out how things work (i.e. buttons and such) and having the strength to make those work. The other day he picked up a brick with one hand! And not sure if this belongs here or at 16 months, but at about 15.5 he figured out walking backwards, which he finds funny. Gideon has also started saying "How you doin?" and "Whoa" to him which he finds HILARIOUS. That's showing our age, right? Nothing like referencing 90's sitcoms to make your baby laugh!

He's also turning into quite the dancer. He started awhile ago with the baby bounce and added one foot stomping this summer. Lately, he has added turns and a fast foot thing a la Flashdance. He likes it when we dance with him.

And that's what Joaquin has been up to! Gid has become quite the biker and I have started a very intense semester of classwork, work, and the beginning of my dissertation!

Two things I love

Two things I love right now...

1. Awhile ago I started laughing like the count after we counted anything. Now whenever we count he goes, "Ah-ha-ha" at the end

2. This picture is one of his favorite toys right now (from Diandraann photography--his 9 mo. session). He likes to bring it to one of us so we can point out "Mommy, Daddy, Joaquin!" And then we'll spend a good amount of time with him pointing and us saying who it is.

Joaquin at 14 months

Joaquin turned 14 months last week. We took him to the doctor and he is 32 lbs. 14 oz...he is a big boy and I have not yet lost my beautiful, fat little feet! This month, he became particularly fascinated with planes and helicopters in the sky and pointing them out to us. He has done that before, but he became acutely aware of it this month. He is very interested in helping me out with whatever I'm doing...he picks up the little broom or dustpan when I am sweeping, pulls plants out of the ground when I'm weeding, and likes to stir things in the kitchen. This last one has become a particular favorite...any long, stick like thing can be used to stir and any hole or bowl can be used to stir. He likes to stir everything! He has also finally moved out of his baby bath and started to walk around when we take a shower now. No major spills yet!

This month was also marked by Uncle Nate moving out last week. He moved in with us for one month back when Joaquin was about 3 months old and moved out at 14 months instead...we are that fun! Joaquin and Uncle Nate have a special bond...no one can provide the physical antics like Uncle Nate can. One of their favorite games is to throw Joaquin in the air in full 360s before catching him again. And Uncle Nate has the best toy in the house...a small remote to his ipod dock that fits perfectly in Joaquin's hand. Joaquin will miss that remote (and Uncle Nate too, I guess) and I am so grateful of the time we've all had together to form that bond between them.

I like to climb into things

The perfect LA summer weekend

Last summer, I had the idyllic experience of being on maternity leave. We would spend all day getting acquainted with each other and then evenings were spent taking advantage of summer in the city--mainly free concerts every week. What a great experience it was to try and recall Gin Blossom songs on our way to listening to them for free in the middle of downtown on a weeknight only to discover that we all knew just about every song played...they had alot of hits!

This summer has been harder as I am at work and, thus, Joaquin has to get up early to go to daycare, but this weekend was a great moment of de ja vu as we went to a free downtown concert on Friday, had a few friends over for BBQ and firepit on Sat, and headed to the beach on Sunday. Ah! Loving Los Angeles in the summer!

Some pics of fun things we are doing:

13 months old-4th of July!

This was Joaquin's second 4th of July...that sounds weird that he has a 2nd of anything! Last year, he was one month old when we took him to see some fireworks. I spent most of the time changing his diaper in a mail station. This year, we did a big fireworks show the weekend before and he did well with it...he was walking around when the first one went off and I picked him up right away. I asked, "Are you ok?" and he did a very slow head nod with his eyes as big as saucers. The actual 4th, we were with Gid's family who does their own little show in the street. That was a bit much for him...too loud and we spent half of it inside. He did eventually warm up to it and watched the rest from the safety of his carrier.

The first month of his second year has been a big one. He has grown 2.5 inches, lost about 5 lbs., and cut 3 new teeth. He is a walking machine now...doing laps around our living room/kitchen all night when we watch TV. He answers regularly now with head nods yes and no. His favorite new thing is to answer the question, "What does a doggy say?"..."Woof, woof..." And now when the doggies bark, he says woof, woof. We're working on "Moo" now. He's got high fives and clapping down...everything gets applause now!

Two of my favorite things from the past month: the first happened when I left the room for a moment. When I came back, he was in the doorway with a book asking me to read it...he had gotten up, chosen a book, and went to go find me! My other favorite thing is the talking and motioning in his sleep. He's always laughed, but now he starts practicing 'Pick It' (like in patty cake) and clapping his hands about 30 min-1 hour before he wakes up.

Superdad!

Gideon is a great dad. This father's day was his '2nd' father's day, but it was really the first that we've celebrated. Last year, Joaquin was less than 2 weeks old when father's day rolled around...we weren't even bringing him out of the house yet. Gid ended up doing sprinkler work that day. I even had this bib that said something like "I love my daddy" ...and I forgot I had it and it didn't end up on Joaquin the day of.

This year, Gideon made my first mother's day so wonderful. He woke up early in the morning and got all the fixins for my favorite breakfast. In the afternoon, we had a gourmet picnic that he prepared and then went to Huntington Gardens. My mom had fixed up the backyard as well and Joaquin gave me a flower from the garden. It was such a lovely day and I wanted to make sure Gid had a day like that as well.

So on Sunday, Joaquin and I gave Gideon a book about Daddy's tools and some fancy shaving things. Joaquin gave daddy the book just like he gave me the flower, it was very sweet. Then we went to the grocery store and got all the fixins for a gourmet lunch picnic and a steak and lobster dinner. We headed to the Skirball then for their comic book exhibition. Nap time ran a little late, so we never got to the picnic, but the exhibition was quite fun and we had the unexpected bonus of hitting the Noah's Ark exhibition...artist sculptures using recycled materials to depict the ark plus interactive kid's parts galore. So well done! Joaquin liked driving the bat mobile and then had a ball in the ark...we will definitely be back! We went home for an early dinner and toast to Joaquin's superdad.

Here's one of my favorite stories from the day and it illustrates what a 'dad' Gid has become...the day before was a little rough. I wasn't feeling well and Joaquin had a little anxiety attack coming back from Bakersfield. That means that the morning of Father's Day, after he got his presents, dad had to clean the poo out of the bathtub and the vomit from the car. Then our blender broke and Gid found a way to blend anyway so we could have our smoothies because, as he said, "That's what I do. I fix things." Got to love a dad that fixes things. Isn't that what daddies should do? I love you babe...you are a great father and Joaquin and I are lucky to have you!