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!

Playing in the snow

We've fired up the snowpants and winter gear a few times so far to go out to play in the snow.
Joaquin is a little more tentative around the snow. It's hard to walk in, and boots and snowpants are very restricting. He doesn't like to wear mittens or gloves but then whines and cries if his hands get wet from the snow. He likes to be on the clean sidewalk areas rather than tromping in the snow.

Getting all the gear on is work! Joaquin is not sure that all this fuss is worth it for 10 minutes of outside time.


But it's totally worth it to see a bundled toddler who can barely move.


Art pulled Joaquin on the sled on the path near our house and Joaquin sat quietly and enjoyed the ride for a while.



See! He's having a blast!

Holiday tip!

I'm going to go ahead and recommend that you do not pay Amazon $4 to wrap your present for you. Here's the beauty they wrapped for us. Oh well - we got a good laugh so maybe that was worth the $4. Amazon's elves must be getting tired.

Outside

Joaquin's first real word was 'outside' - pronounced 'ouwsssside!!' Unless you count uh-oh, which was really his first word. I only count words once he is able to use them in context, unprompted. So even Mama and Dada have just recently made the list, because for a long time it was just 'mamamamamama' when ever he needed something, no matter who was around. But outside came pretty early --Joaquin will stand at the door, reach up for the knob and say 'ouwssside!!' like 18 times a day. He always wants to go outside, and when it rains, we've even let him play in the garage with the cars backed out for a while. Now that it's cold, we're having lots of fun discussions about why we can't go outside all the time. And it's not easy to reason with Joaquin, or any 18 month old I'm sure. Like today, he found bag of decorative rocks in a cupboard and was trying to feed them to me over and over. I kept saying - 'Joaquin, I don't eat rocks', 'Joaquin, No thank you, I don't eat rocks.' And he whined and tried to shove them right into my mouth and didn't understand why I wouldn't give them a try. Anyway.....so Joaquin likes to be outside and we had some great November weather and could spend lots of time outside. On this day, we were raking leaves and Joaquin enjoyed that a lot. We were still able to get the raking done (but Art did fill 15 bags to my 1 bag, so I didn't get THAT much done). He really enjoyed playing in the piles and trying to help rake. He picked up little handfuls of leaves and put them in the bags. Such a good helper, and I don't think he tried to make me eat any leaves.

Our Parent/Teacher Conference

I had my first parent/teacher conference! Sure...Joaquin is only 17 months old, but it's never too early to start setting expectations around learning and development. We got a little report card for him from his teacher at daycare.

Here are some of the items that Joaquin got an 'A' in (A for Always):
--Climbs on any available object
--Stops and picks up objects
--Imitates adults
--Shows empathy (my favorite...so nice)
--Throws trash away!
--Knows own cubby
--Waves and says 'bye- bye'
--responds to music

Here are some of the items that Joaquin got a 'S' in (S for Sometimes):
--Points to named object
--marks with crayon, marker
--tries to sing
--makes animal sounds (he tries...i asked him last week what a dog says and he said "Hoo-Hoo"...then I asked what a cat says, and he said "Hoo-Hoo". So we're still working out the details on what the animals actually say)
--attempts to put shoes and hat on

Here are the items that Joaquin got an 'N' (N for Never). We've had a talk with Joaquin and we should see some quick improvements. I mean..it's not like any of these are hard....
--Enjoys new tactile experience (Joaquin hates painting-they only get him to paint if they offer him a brush!)
--Pulls pants up
--watches shadow
--puts simple puzzles together
--Shows hand preference
--Recognizes own art work.

I hope you all know that we don't take this too seriously - and it was a nice way for us to connect with his teachers on what he is doing. I asked his teacher what makes Joaquin unique and she said that he is very gentle with the other kids - and always gives hugs and kisses. He loves to be social but likes his alone time too and will sit and work on something by himself for a while. He loves loves loves to be outside. Pretty nice, don't you think?

So, if he never learns how to pull up his pants, I will still be a proud mama if he grows up and gives hugs and kisses, likes to be outside and is happy being social or spending time by himself sometimes. Hmmmmm...some people might be uncomfortable if he does those things without pants on......maybe we'll work on the pants thing.

Halloween 2009...may the force be with you...

Halloween was a lot of fun this weekend. We started Halloween festivities on Friday when our friends Dana and Ryder hosted a halloween preview playdate. Our playdates just get more and more exciting as our babies get older. It was a lot of fun - here's just a snapshot of the chaos.
We tried to get all the kids on the couch for a picture in their costumes but I got no good shots of that. I'm not sure what sort of magic photographer could get 7 16-month-olds who were all overdue for a nap to sit on the couch in costumes at the same time. But I'll be anxious to see what Jaxon or the Weils post!


On Saturday, we made a questionable decision to go to Ikea before trick-or-treating, so our little jedi-master almost napped thru all the daylight trick-or-treating. He finally woke up and i crammed some pasta in his mouth for dinner and got him outside just in time to get a few pics of Joaquin in his Yoda costume before the sun went down.
Tada!

Always two there are...a master and an apprentice....


Here we are on our way to trick or treat. Art held down the fort while Joaquin and I went out. We just hit a handful of houses since I don't really need the candy.

Joaquin was a quick study. After i demo-ed the process at a couple of houses, he took over and would walk up to the door and knock on his own. He eagerly dug into the candy bowls and wouldn't stop grabbing candy until I told him to. Other than the large amount of banana Laffy Taffys he came home with, trick or treating was a success. One of our neighbors had an after-hours party and we had a few more snacks before it was time for bed.

Getting ready for school

Joaquin loves getting ready to go to daycare in the mornings. Except putting a diaper on and getting dressed - that's a daily negotiation. We have a nice morning routine that includes a breakfast of scrambled eggs with cheese, an Eggo waffle and some sort of fruit. While Joaquin eats his breakfast, I pack his little daycare bag. We have a little canvas bag that we bring his sippy cups to daycare in each day. When he sees that bag he gets very excited. When he's finally free from his highchair, he grabs the bag and throws it over his shoulder and heads for the door. He turns around to wave and say 'Bye!' or more accurately, 'Bah!'.

Joaquin takes saying and waving 'Bye' very seriously, and I laugh every time. It requires a stretch from toe to fingertip. His stance is like how you would stand if you were pointing at something really far away - he reaches forward and stands on his tippy toes and reaches his arm out as far as he can. His 'wave' is more like the motion you would make with your hand if you were milking a cow. He sometimes loses his balance when he waves bye because it really requires a lot of coordination.

Anyway, so Joaquin stands at the backdoor ready to go. I usually can finally convince him that we need to put our shoes on, and then he heads right back for the door again. When I open the door, he crawls down the stairs and walks over to the car- with the bag over his shoulder. He has the biggest smile and he is very happy to get in the car and head off to school.

Maybe this is one of those things that only Joaquin's parents will find amusing. Oh well. It's one of the daily pleasures we get and I don't want to forget his funny toddler behavior. I always wonder whether his mannerisms now will stick with him the older he gets.

OK..rambling complete. Thanks for listening. Over and out.

Libby
a.k.a "MAMA!"