Joaquin is 2.5!

...or just over :)

Here's what our little boy is like at 2.5...

He is obsessed with Dora the Explorer, Season 3-yes, only season 3. We don't have cable and so he can only get Dora on netflix. Netflix only goes to season 3 and that is apparently the season where they changed their intro. So it is "swinging from the vines Dora" all the time at our house.

His obsession with Dora has provided him with all kinds of Spanish. Spoken regularly at our house now are "Hop on-Subon!", "Por Favor", "De Nada", "Buenos Dias!", "Oh si, mucho gusto!"

His memory is incredible...he told me all the houses in the neighborhood that were decorated last year and he was only 1.5 last year. Sure enough, when decorations went up, he was right on. His vocabulary is also incredible, at a much higher level than most 2 year olds. He corrects his own grammar, speaks in full sentences, uses complicated words, and plays pretend with full conversations between his trains.

He's also decided he does not need to sleep anymore, regularly staying up with Daddy after Mommy goes to bed. Two nights ago he didn't go to sleep until 1 am and even then he woke up at 7 asking, "Is nap time over?" He's also a bit shy and very hesitant around big groups, especially those that are noisy, which can be quite a challenge with Gideon's family :). We had a party the other day and with one friend he was all happy and smiles saying, "We're having a party!" With 4 friends it turned into, "I'm scared of our friends."

This year is our first year really celebrating a traditional Christmas with him. He has gifts under the tree and got a message from Santa Claus that he watched 10 times in a row. Merry Christmas anyone out there that reads this-I hope you and your family have as much love and joy as ours does!

Old Skool

Joaquin's favorite song right now is admirably old skool.

No pictures!

Joaquin picked up a big novel yesterday (one of Gideon's) while I was making dinner and said, "I'm going to read, once upon a time." He walked over to the dog bed, sat down, opened it and said, "Once upon a time...aw, there are no pictures!"

Our east coast jaunt

Gid, Joaquin, my mom, and me just got back from a trip to the east coast--mostly New York--which was great fun. The event was Dylan and PJ's wedding, which was lovely and touching. PJ asked Joaquin if he knew what he just saw and Joaquin's answer was simply, "a wedding." How beautiful it would be if Joaquin grows up in a world where it would just be a just that, that simple!

Anyway, the ceremony and party were touching and personal and I feel very lucky to have kept in touch with such wonderful friends for so long. We also felt very lucky that the wedding was in CT. What a beautiful place! The topography reminded us quite a bit of Birmingham...but on steroids. Everything was just 'more.' The leaves were turning (Joaquin: "We're in the jungle!") and the food was beyond good. Best ice cream we've ever had served right out of a building next to the farm housing the cows that produce it! And can you really beat wine tasting while picking organic raspberries?



After an idyllic time in CT, we headed to NYC where we had an action filled week to see the sites, some shows, and make our way in the gloomy weather. Joaquin loved the 'Big' piano at FAO Schwartz (some tears and convincing to get him away from that) and walked across the entire Brooklyn Bridge by himself.



He also did some flirting with the waitresses at the Russian Tea Room--"how you doing?"...seriously. They also had opera playing and Joaquin turned to ask the hostess what she was singing. This opened us to the wonders of traveling with a cute child as the hostess than invited us up to the private--and extremely opulent--rooms. Have you ever seen an 8 foot tall glass bear with fish in it juggling golden balls? Because we have. How about a 12 foot tall golden tree with 1.5 foot long Faberge eggs? Check!



One of my favorite experiences was seeing Rock of Ages with mom. Great show, lots of fun--and at the end this guy comes out, announces he's the lead singer of REO Speedwagon and gives an impromptu concert! They stay after and the band gives special props to the lead we saw that night, who apparently got the call that he was going to make his Broadway debut at 6:08 that evening...for an 8 pm show. One of Gid's favorite moments was the church near the WTC site, which is quite the testament to humanity.



And my favorite shot of the trip is this one, which is just so poignant to me given Gid's status as a naturalized citizen and the opportunities or potential for opportunities our son will have. I don't know that it has as much poignancy to Gid and maybe I am just being dramatic, but I like it :)

Patriotism and gay rights in one posting? You betcha!

Grandparent's Day

Sunday was grandparent's day, which seems like a bit of a manufactured holiday to me since it also seems relatively new, but I suppose no more manufactured than mother's or father's day. I thought I'd use the opportunity to write about Joaquin's relationship with my mom. Besides weeks when we have been out of town, Lola Elle has come over every week. Since I've been back to work, she picks him up once a week early from day care and they go home to have fun.



When he first started 'calling' people on the phone, it was Lola ("Lola? Bring me hot dogs!"). Now he does all kinds of fun things because of her.

• Every time he climbs something, he puts his arms up and shouts "I am king!"
• He sings the Young Frankenstein version of Puttin on the Ritz. So imagine (in regular voice) "If you're down and you don't know..." followed by (Frankenstein voice) "Puttin on the Ritz!"
• Whenever he wants to get down from something, even when he's irritated, he says "Get down, get down, jungle boogie!"
• When you ask him what day Lola picks him up, he'll say "Tickle Tuesday"
• And he's been sick lately and when I ask him to blow his nose he says, "Up your nose with a rubber hose!"
• When he gets out of the spa and wants a towel, he says "Want to wrap you up in my love?"
  

They have such a special relationship, which is such a blessing--for him and for Gideon and I!

Trash Money!

Here's Joaquin doing 'happy face'. He also does sad face and surprised face.

Joaquin has begun to personify things and play pretend. Here are two exchanges from the weekend:

1. (To the dime he found under his slide) "Oh, hello trash money! Would you like to slide? Thank You! You're welcome!" (Send dime down the slide)

2. (To the bubbles I am blowing while he's in the turtle pool) "Hello bubbles! Stay right there! Would you like to play with weeds?"

And this one is about a month old now, but it's funny. He pulled 2 wine bottles out of the recycle bin and brought them into the living room (at the same time--this kid is strong!). He put them on the table and said, "This one is for Joaquin, this one is for Daddy!" One of them was actually a sparkling juice, so he was actually right.

My super awesome birthday

I had the most awesome birthday ever. It started with trapeze school, something I've always wanted to do:



My back is still sore! Here's Gid:




Followed by horseback riding in Griffith Park:















And home for dinner and the most delicious cake ever. We had to sing a few times because Joaquin learned to blow out candles. Which had it's benefits, because I got this at the end of the night:

Gideon really outdid himself this year! What a wonderful day...the best birthday I've ever had...love you babe.

Our 2 year old

Ah the paradox of being a parent...you say "2 years old! Already?", yet we can't imagine our life without him. I get weekly emails from this baby web site; when he turned 1 it changed from "Your baby" to "Your toddler." This morning's email read "Your pre-schooler"!!! Pre-school? Already! I only got one year of toddler-dom!

Joaquin continues to amaze us. Our 2 year old has an extensive vocabulary and an incredible work ethic. I still get comments on what a beautiful baby she is and the comments on his curly hair are endless. He loves to read. His favorite books now are usually the series '...from the black lagoon.' He quotes his books like people quote movies. He loves trains and trucks. He likes Curious George and Super Why. He's started to sing actual songs, his favorite is the Dinosaur Train theme song. He likes to race by saying "On your mark, get set, go!" complete with squatting with fingers on the pavement for 'on your mark.' He has a memory now...he talks about the seals at the aquarium and that mommy was at the University and daddy was at the hospital. He has finally learned to give real hugs rather than just backing into you to let you hug him. He loves being outside. He is polite-says please, thank you, excuse me, and nice to see you.

We had a party in our backyard to celebrate his birthday. The yard looked gorgeous and we got to show off Gideon's beautiful new deck. The house is done with all the major projects and just needs a few tweaks. What a beautiful life we have right now.

You know what? I'm happy!

Joaquin said to me yesterday, "You know what?" (Me: What?), "I'm happy!" Love this boy!

We make Joaquin earn his keep

Seriously though, this kid cracks us up sometimes. What a work ethic! He's got a rocking horse that he pulled out the other night. Did he want to ride the horse? No! Check it out....

Yes, that's him fixing the horse with a screwdriver.

Where? Ok!

Joaquin's newest thing is to say something with (I think) the intention of us repeating it. So if it's something he wants to see, he'll kind of say it under his breath (Helicopter...) and we'll say "Helicopter?" and he'll answer loudly and excitedly "Where!?" OR it'll be something he wants to do and he'll say it under his breath (Bring bat...) and we'll say, "You want to bring the bat?" and he'll say, "Oh-kay!" in this kind of sing-songy voice like, well if you insist, why not?

And...

Joaquin has discovered what the word 'and' means, so now I get lots of lists. What's outside? Trees...and...cars...and...flowers...and... :)

He's also started to tell me about his day at daycare. Everyday he tells me something different he did there. So far it's been "Colors, read books, play with toys, and play with Aleisha." Aleisha is his little buddy there. I've been told that they walk around the house holding hands.

Here's him doing two of his favorite things at home now--coloring and cleaning.

22 months

And the perfect storm continues! No rest for the wicked? Or no rest for those to continue education and have children? The pace has not slowed down...if anything, it's sped up as we now find ourselves behind in everything after all that travel. For me, behind on my dissertation. For Gid, behind on his self-imposed deadline to get the house finished up before Joaquin's 2nd birthday.

A friend and I were talking over email about how interesting it is to hear yourself reflected through your just-talking child...meaning they parrot what you say and things you say alot become well repeated. So this is apparently what I say alot: "Oh no! What happened?" and "So cool!" So everything is so cool and any mistakes now result in a (very concerned voice) "Oh no! What happened!"

He loves, loves, loves Curious George. The trip to PI was a little hard for him and he watched Curious George at least twice a day for the entire trip. My guess is that I've seen that movie at least 100 times now.

Instead of a basket this Easter, we signed him up for the PBS Kids Club, which got him his Curious George stuffed animal. It's the first stuffed animal I've seen him play with since Bailey attacked this little tiger he liked at 3 mos.

This past month marked what I hope is our last airplane trip before the 'you need to pay' 2 year mark in June. Joaquin has traveled to the Philippines twice, within the Philippines twice, 3 times to Florida, and 1 time to Hawaii in his short 22 months. Quite the frequent flier!

And he continues to amaze me. I think I've got an extraordinary little person on my hands. This Easter we went for a hike that was supposed to be an hour long. That hour long hike turned into 6 hours and probably 8-9 miles. Joaquin walked 5-6 of it himself and never really complained. We had very little food and he was hungry and tired. When he was tired he would say "Keep going" and when he was hungry he would say "Donuts in the car", but we never had a meltdown and he was such the trooper. I would say I am proud of him, but that doesn't really sum it up...I am more amazed by him. How many little kids would troop on like that without any food or sleep? Amazing, amazing, amazing...

19-21 months

Joaquin turns 21 months our first day back in the Philippines and before I miss another blog milestone, I thought I'd write on the past couple of months. These months are best characterized by an explosion of language. It started with "awesome." We often would say, can you say [...]? and have him try and repeat it. Sometimes he would and sometimes he wouldn't and most would be monosyllabic words. One night we said, can you say awesome? and he comes out with awe-shum...a two syllable word! From there, everything was fair game...can you say [...]? Yes! Absolutely he can say whatever we ask him to now! From there it evolved into him repeating after us without prompting and many revelations for us on just how many words he actually knows. Who knew he knew the word couch? We never tried to teach it to him, it just came out one day...the mind is such an incredible thing.

The latest evolution occurred last night. Gid picked him up from daycare and he was crying, crying, crying for me on the way home. I come home and he calms down...after he calms down (about an hour later) I say, "I heard you were upset when you came home with daddy." He nods and says, "Daddy. Cry." I say, "I know, why were you crying?" He says, "Mouth. Hurt." Sure enough, I look and his mouth is swollen...I think he has molars coming in. But a full conversation! So exciting...the little guy surprises me every day.

20 months is also the first time we haven't taken his sign picture. It's been a perfect storm for us the past few months. Joaquin has been sick quite a bit and with my grandfather's death, school, and work the days have escaped us. As soon as we landed, we're off again to celebrate Gideon's Lola's 90th birthday. It's nice to have a celebration to look forward to!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2010 comes in roaring like a lion

I have not only missed our 19 month birthday, but also the 20 month birthday! I'll write a separate entry for those...needless to say, the year moved nicely from a leisurely, much needed break in Maui to breakneck speed once we got back!

I wanted to take and space some time to reflect on the death of my grandfather. He died this past Sunday at 92 and while not a total surprise, it certainly wasn't expected. My grandpa was often a hard man growing up. He was business oriented, traditional, and judgmental...but age and health problems had softened him and the grandpa I re-visited in my adult years was nothing like the grandpa I remembered of my youth. He smiled more, cracked jokes, told stories, and cried. He got to meet Joaquin twice and spent time with him playing on the floor and tickling his feet. I am so grateful that we had that opportunity and Joaquin had that touch point with him. I am so sad that we did not get more time with this man I feel like we had just started getting to know.

I wonder if everyone feels this...was I really too busy to put together that DVD for him for the holidays? I hope he felt loved and appreciated by us. I hope he continues that journey he was on of 'softening' and I hope he is finally free of the aches and pains that ailed him in his final years. 92 years...what a life, what opportunity...what a blessing to meet the man he had become.

And Maui to start the new year...

Wow, we are a lucky family. Not only did we get to have our first week of the new year in Maui, but we all traveled really well together!

We had a great time in Maui and it was a much needed break for everyone. Lots of beaches, biking down the volcano, Maui's only winery, and casual BBQ's around our condo's pool. The weather was great all week and it was an easy trip...which is more than I could have asked for after the winter! Here are some of my favorite pics: