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!