Tejano Joaquin

The new header at the top of our blog is from our trip to Texas for Thanksgiving - Grandpa has chickens in his yard and Joaquin enjoyed the chase.  His grandpa also got Joaquin these fancy cowboy boots. They are real leather with a hard sole that clicks around our wood floors when he wears them. And he loves to wear them around the house and stomp his feet. 

(Look how clever we are by putting a little cow next to his boots)

Here's our little cowboy corralling his pink stroller.  We are going to get a special hard drive, put copies in a safety deposit box and a fireproof safe so that we can show this picture in his teen years. 

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Friday morning

Our friend Jaxon came over on Friday for a playdate and some lunch.

 They ignored a whole room full of toys and were fixated on 2 soccer balls for a while.  Joaquin was not in the mood to share with his friend AT ALL.   Joaquin only wanted to play with the toys that Jaxon picked up and we were in constant non-stop negotiations with him to get him to play with another toy.  It was not his finest moment and it was not a pretty sight so no photos were taken.  See how guilty he looks?

Fortunately Madison showed up to talk some sense into the boys and distract them from the balls.

The three of them really bonded over checking out the image in Christy's camera.

Madison was very helpful and fed Joaquin goldfish one by one until he had a mouthful - which he loved. We learned that Jaxon is scared of Elmo dolls so we will hide them for next time.  It's good to have friends to hang out with.

18 month check-up

Joaquin had his 18 month appointment yesterday - a little late since he turned 19 months last week. He weighs 24 pounds 9 ounces, which is at the 25th %-tile. And he is 31.5 inches tall - also 25th %-tile. But his melon is 49 cms around which is the 75th %-tile! He's got a nice big melon just like his dad. Everything else was a-ok at his check-up. I thought this would be a good time to note some what Joaquin is into these days...

Likes:
School buses and 'big trucks!". Joaquin will always point out a big truck or school bus when we are on the road.

Elmo (a.k.a. Lalalala): A while back I complained that Joaquin wouldn't sit and watch TV at all. No more! Now we're having the likely battles of him always wanting to watch 'lalalala'. We have held pretty firm to only letting him watch a show before bedtime (easy enough since he's at daycare most of the day)-but weekends are a bit more of a battle. His favorite episode is the Squirmadega one where Slimey the worm races cars.

Music. If I don't let Joaquin watch Lalalala, he will settle for music. He likes anything with a good dance beat and he is a good little dancer. He spins in circles, shakes his booty and during slow songs, he has a cool slow jam. He likes to dance to Single Ladies (a baby classic), and the new Alicia Keys CD. His all-time favorite song is Popcorn by the Barenaked Ladies. He's loved that song for months and always sings along in the car.

Dislikes:

Dirt. Joaquin still gets upset when there is dirt in his presence. Every time I sit him in his highchair, his first move is to inspect the tray. He pokes his finger at any little speck that is on there and sticks out his finger so I can remove it from his presence. If he sees crumbs on the ground he points at them with a distressed face and says something like "Chehhcwhw". He has a little chalkboard and is in a constant battle with the chalk dust. I've showed him how to wipe it off on his pants, and he normally just runs over to me to wipe the dust off on my pants instead.

Mechanics. Joaquin is in a typical toddler stage where he gets frustrated VERY easily. If the tower of blocks falls over, or the train tracks come apart he will throw that poor train or block as hard as he can - and yell and grab his face. It's a sure sign of frustration. I hope he learns to manage his anger a little better later in life!

Christmas!

In the mornings since we've had the Christmas tree up and decorated, I start many of my day by carrying Joaquin downstairs. It's dark in the house except for the lights from the tree and when we turn the corner to head into the family room, Joaquin says 'wowwwwww!' It won't bother me too much if it wasn't soooo dark when we woke up, but his reaction makes the tree more magical. I also thought the Christmas tree would be the source of more battles. I thought for sure he'd try to take off the lights, the ornaments and maybe even climb it. But after spending a little time plucking the low hanging ornaments off, he left it alone and just enjoys looking at the lights.

Grandpa Bill was here with us on Christmas morning. We opened grownup presents on Christmas Eve and I am very excited because Art got me a fancy new camera - so be prepared to be wowwwwww-ed by my mad photography skillz going forward. Christmas morning it was all for Joaquin. Check out his awesome Christmas pjs!


Joaquin got some great gifts from his grandparents. He was having so much fun with the stuff he got that we've saved some presents in the back room for later. He enjoyed his Airforce One - I don't think it's too early for him to start getting acquainted with the equipment.

We moved the party down to Lockport later in the day to celebrate with Uncle Marc and Aunt Lindsay and the Grants. They cooked us an awesome dinner.
I took a lot of pictures with my new camera on Christmas. I could also show you the plate of cookies, the corn salsa and the dancing snowman if you like! No??!?

Here are the boys in their cute matching Christmas sweaters from Donna. That confused look? That's because Art was standing behind us waving a broom or shovel around and chanting and hopping.

Ryan's working on his walking. And yeah, I let Joaquin chew on a toothbrush sometimes. I think my mom would be cool with it.




The next day we were back home for some beautiful fluffy snow.



Check out his flippers!


And Joaquin had to get caught up on some laundry.


I hope you had a great Christmas too!

Christmas parties!

Joaquin and I went to a couple of great Christmas parties for the under-2 crowd. Christmas was off to a slow start in our house - the tree was a little late in getting here, and then it stood undecorated until just a few days before Christmas. Things just weren't coming together very quickly for us. Spending some time with my friends and celebrating Christmas with our kids helped make things feel more festive. We kicked off the Christmas celebrations at Jaxon's house for a Christmas play-date. And we had moderate success getting all the kids to sit for a picture!
Getting 5 toddlers to sit for a picture is kinda like playing wack-a-mole.You never know which one is going to pop up next, and someone has to get in there and plop them down. For about 30 seconds all the kids managed to stay still and we each got a decent picture. Sure, they mostly look more stunned than happy, but we consider it a victory.

The next day, Joaquin and I drove to Sterling to Abby's house for a party with my Augie friends who all had babies in 2008. Things were quite different than our Christmas get-together last year! There was a lot more running and playing this year, and the moms were able to talk a little bit more. Joaquin is trying very hard to keep up with the big kids here... I didn't take very good pictures at that party,
There are better pics on Abby's blog!