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!