4 minutes of tricks I can do

This video equals: I forgot to take video for a while, so let's see if we can get Joaquin to do a bunch of tricks at once.

It started off with Douglas doing the Big Stretch after dinner and Joaquin joining him. So I grabbed my camera and asked Douglas to please re-stretch. He did. And then you get this. Four minutes of weird.

And this isn't even close to all the strange things we ask him to do.

It's hard to say what my favorite is. Is it me asking him to "do" lobster and him say "rico!" (delicious)? It is the MAMA! that comes after Por Favor? Maybe the fact that he takes more syllables to say Por Favor than any person ever in the history of por favor-ers? Or the fact that we can make him do anything if we bribe him with "applejiss".

Whatever. I can watch it over and over. But then, I am the MAMA!

Amor, A-meow: The Video

Starting earlier this summer a song was being played over and over and over on our Sirius tropical station. It's Fernando Villalona's Yo Soy Aquel. And it's Joaquin's first favorite song. Maybe because it was overplayed, or maybe because it has an awesome "amor, amor, ammmmmmmmmmmor!" lyric in it.

Whatever caused it to hit a chord with him, it did. And since it was on heavy, heavy rotation he heard it at breakfast, in the car, at lunch, in the car, in the car, in the car, in the car, at dinner and apparently in his dreams. He sang himself to sleep many a night this summer "Amor, Amor, Ammmmmooooooor!" So so sweet. And his little pursed lips made it even better.

And then. One day. He changed it up. "Amor, A-meow!"

It's how he sings it now. And if he doesn't want to sing it when you ask, he still will, but he will really rush it. So here's the video from last night (I waited way too long to get this) and he starts off with the rushed version and then gets into it for a while.

First Haircut!

The bird's nest in the back of his head from the car seat rides just finally got to be too much. I mean, really really too much. It was a big dreadlock after each trip and a lot of conditioner and combing each night in the bath.

So last week, we went and got a haircut.

A very fancy haircut in a place that costs twice as much as Papi pays for his!

And he was so very good the entire time.

Here's some footage.

Where we started. Big. Frizzy.


First cut done. Ok. Deep Breaths.


It tickles!


I don't know. I am not sure this is the right thing to do!


FLUFFY! Your styling is FLUFFY!


Check out the sweet ride at the salon.


ALL DONE!


I think I may like it.


Two days later. Mama-styled version. :-)

SummerDance last night.

Well, it's like his favorite thing ever. Dancing to music. And staying up past his bedtime. (Ok, favorite that's a tie with kicking a ball around!)

Last night was the first tango in the park for SummerDance and we dusted off the Ergo Carrier just like last year. Of course, he's bigger!! Taller and much heavier. But he's also stronger and I don't worry about him acting like a dead weight to swing around. He loves it and he's safe.

He rode on me the entire night and I am a bit sore this morning as a result. That was 2 hours of dancing with a little break in the middle to eat some grapes and cheese and stretch his legs.

Needless to say, he loved it. And it's fun to see people react to a threesome tango family. One couple came up to us and said they have a photo of us dancing at the Cultural Center when I was pregnant. And now they have one of us with the kiddo, too.

Joaquin and I danced with Papi and two other brave leader souls were willing to take us on as well.

It was great!

The family that tangos together, sweats together. Super humid. Super wet. Super curly.



My boys.








And a couple more photos since I am dedicated to practicing with my camera.

This is from Monday, June 15. Cafe Gelato.




And this is from this morning. Putting on his chapstick.

First day of Soccer. Consider it an early Father's Day!

Well, I took over 200 photos from this grand event. First, I swore to keep practicing. Second, I knew we needed to document, document, document the event. I hope Joaquin doesn't feel the pressure, but he needs to get a full ride to a very good school on his soccer (nay, futbol!) skills. So we started him at 18 months. That's about when you learn that soccer practice has 45 balls, bubbles and all parents on the pitch chasing you around, too. I figure we can learn about offsides in week 3 or 4, right?

Let's state the very obvious. JOAQUIN LOVED IT! It's the combo of one of his favorite things ever (balls) with the doing something with Papi, with .... well, it was SUMMER on the first day and we have been waiting around for summer for like... uh, a year.

Perfect, glorious day. We love soccer.


Where can 18 month olds learn to play soccer in Chicago?


Papi put my kit on for me. Apparently I don't get to wear my Honduras uniform. Boo!


All suited up. This one may last for a year or two! And yes, that's an Extra Small.


Doing drills with papi. He loves Coach Nikki!

Working on his Game Face.


One of the best parts of the practice was stacking cones.


Future scholarship recipient.


They got stamps on their hands at the end. He's never had a stamp. He loves stamps now.


My favorite little boy and my favorite shot of the day of him.

And a final shot of the mother of his crazy hair.

Practicing with my camera after taking a lesson

On Friday I got to take the entire day off to run around with my camera and try and learn new stuff. It was so much fun and I learned a lot. I took a class with Rachael from Metropolitan Images. She's the gal that took my maternity photos and Joaquin's first year milestones.

So after a full day class I vowed to keep my camera close at hand. Today I grabbed it for some photos after getting back from Target with his brand new first pair of Converse. And then I lugged it out of the house in the diaper bag, too.

Tomorrow we have the first day of soccer practice (the idea of this makes me laugh! this is the first day of disorganized running around in the park with other 18-24 month olds!!) and I will have my camera at the ready.

So just because I know Rachael will be hassling me if I don't practice, here's what I caught today.

New Shoes! Papi picked them out!



Checking out the flowers on the balcony.



Trying to get back inside and go and dance with Papi. Is his class over yet?!



Getting smart.



Mami asked me to do a Kitty Meow! Twice.



(Notice furrowed brows of plaintive kitty face during meow!)


Doing a jump dance with a kitty toy in hand. Aka: Freaking out.





And a self-portrait I took during the class.

Joaquin Cousteau.

Auntie Monkey sat for Joaquin tonight. Apparently he hassled her for a bath over and over with pleas for agua and signing bath. She gave in to the relentless begging.

She got her revenge. She gave him the beloved bath with the shower raining on him. And put his safety goggles on.

The pay-off is the final few moments.

Happy Mother's Day

My second Mother's Day.

It was such a nice weekend. Saturday was brunch with girlfriends, then the entire day of playing with my boys and then heading out to see a play and have dinner with Douglas. Sunday has been hanging out at the park and napping. Perfect. Off to teach class in a few hours.

Here we are.

Do Not Want.

Today Joaquin signed EAT at me like 100 times.
And then waved off each thing I gave him. He ate a lot of yogurt today.

At one point he was squealing for the just washed broccoli on the counter.

So I gave it to him.

Raw.

These speak for themselves, no?

The final shot is where he set it down when he was done.

This is the best photography work I have done so far.

I am proud of me.

A week in Texas. AKA. You can do 6 days on fruit and no naps.

Joaquin and I got home this evening. To a very happy Papi that his family had made it back safely. Watching Joaquin see his "stuff" and know he was home was a really cool experience. As much fun as he had with his cousins, he was really going on a LOT less sleep and a LOT LOT less food. He lived on grapes and whatever Cheerios he could forage from Uncle Matt. And no nap unless it was on a person, preferably on Grandpa Tommy in a porch swing.

But we are back. He gladly kicked the mirror facing his carseat and turned his music on before he was even in the straps. And he ran into his bedroom to make sure the crib was still there.

He went down without a peep after EATING REAL FOOD.

It was a fun week. And I need to go through all the video and photos and start uploading quickly, but I am tired tired tired.

Here's one. Cousins can go to the beach together. Rockport Beach, Texas.

Dip & Bite.

I am not sure if this video is more to prove that Joaquin has the most annoying mama on the planet or to show off his brand new Dip & Bite skills.

This was his first Dip & Bite. I did it about 3 times and passed it to him. What a pro.

He figured out Dip & Lick really quickly, too.

He's not 100% sure he loves fish sticks yet.

Is he really THAT girly looking? Really!?

It's happening over and over. I keep hearing how gorgeous "she" is. I just say thanks, but when they ask her name, the cat is out of the bag. Well, usually. Heh.

It's the curls, right? I mean, for pete's sake. He doesn't even wear baby looking stuff much. Tshirts, cords, sweats. Pretty manly gear. Well, it's not pink.

This photo is from my phone just moments after I heard "What a gorgeous spring flower she is!" What!? Huh?! He's in a black Tshirt. And cords. And brown and green BOY shoes.

I will not cut this curls. Or in this case, his post-nap frizz. Not anytime soon. No way. He can deal with being called a girl. He should get used to it anyway. Look at his Papi!

Just me and my big hair. Reading a book.

What?! Come on. Give me a break. I am half TEXAN, right?

Good weather is GREAT!

Oh please let it not be winter anymore. Please. I love warmer weather.

Grandma came back from Texas and so Joaquin made a trek to Brookfield Zoo with Jodie, McKenna, Adeline and Pal. It was a lot of fun. This is how much fun it was.




Today it was even WARMER out so we went to the park for the first walking around visit to the park. So much fun. He wandered a lot. He found another kid that signed and was cracking me up watching him sign bear at the fountain and looking at me and signing to me, too. Yes, you speak the same language.

I was like his shadow trying not to limit his fun but keep him from getting clocked by the swings, crack a skull walking under a metal jungle gym or just knocked flat by the bigger kids that run instead of toddle. He loved it. So did I...

For the record. I hate winter. Hate. Spring and Summer and Fall are where it's at.





PS: Gymboree stuff is oddly sized. That's a 3-6 month Toucan T-shirt he's still wearing. He's 75% for height (32.5 inches) and 25% for weight (22 lbs 13 oz). And still fits in that shirt. Weird. Good thing. We have a bigger one but it can wait.

A couple of new family portraits.

A friend of ours from tango is also a photographer. We had an opportunity to take some photos with Dan this weekend. Joaquin was, uh, tired since it was pretty close to naptime, so he wasn't really interested in doing much in the studio for posing. But there was a huge Irish Wolfhound there and he would have loved to have snuggled up on the dog bed instead for all his shots. He could have walked under the pup's belly and never brushed hair against him... what a huge sweetie.

Anyway, he's been carrying around Dan's business card with shots of the dog all week and signing "puppy" at it.

Here are the shots from Dan. His studio is here: http://danielbyrnesstudios.com/

How in the world does he know!? What in the world?!

Ok, seriously. It's a real question. How does he know!? This boggles my mind.

Tonight we decided to play on the bed instead of the living room because Douglas has a bum knee. So we were all on the bed and I tucked Joaquin under the covers and handed him the remote. He loves the remote. It's sick, actually. I heard him call it mama.

Anyway, normally I let him carry it around the room and he just clicks the buttons and looks at the TV. He doesn't like to WATCH Tv, he likes to play with the remote.

So tonight we kept handing it to him and Douglas noticed. HE TURNS IT AROUND THE RIGHT WAY EACH TIME. He even will grab it with his hand flipped if you let him so he doesn't have to turn it over with 2 hands. It's crazy!

HOW DOES HE KNOW THIS?!

Yes, there is a red light at the top. Sure. But if you point it at the TV or backwards, it works just fine. I tried. Before this video, I used it backwards each time. Nope. Didn't confuse him, he still flipped it.

It's a serious question. How does he know. And how is he SO hardwired to flip it around. Watch. I hand to him correct once, he doesn't even begin to flip it. Watch at 1 minute. He DOESN'T EVEN LOOK at it and he flips it.

How does he know?!

Is it because he's male?

Mama. Let's dance today.

His mouth was hurting. His first molar is coming in. EEEEouch. What helps a sore mouth? Well, it's not in Toddler 411, but I think the real answer is simple: BILL WITHERS.

Dance around to some Bill and almost everything gets better. This was like dance 12 of the day. He is crying at the start because I set him down to turn the camera on. Stopped the second I picked him up. Strangely, I am worn out this evening.

What's so funny?

Do you think he's gonna be an engineer or a theatre major? Does SMU offer discounts for legacies?

Can you LAUGH?

In honor of Adeline's 1 week birthday... Joaquin walks and Mami gets it on video!

It's been about 2 weeks of a few steps here and there. I got a really hilarious video (to me) of me trying to coax him to walk. He didn't walk. He did every.single other trick he knows. For 2 mins. But no walking.

Today I finally finally finally got it. Although it's about 1/3 of the walking he did without the camera on. Of course it is. Douglas has yet to see this much in fact.

I do apologize for my extremely loud self. I really do. Please just use mute. It will save your ears.

Also, I am obviously looking straight into the sun, too. It's so toasty in the living room with all that light. But hard on the eyes.

HAPPY ONE WEEK ADELINE!





Oh and cats are better than dogs. That's for you Daisy, Fado, Carter and Radar. Here's why. We dare you to use your kid and prove us wrong.