Joaquín y Allie

One of the joys of December is increased playtime with out-of-town friends. Although since Kara is here frequently and we always make time to play when she is, I think Joaquin has as many play dates with Allie as he does with some in town friends! We also had Allie over for most of a day while Kara went off to Colorado to see her sister. Both kids were really very good for most of the day. (They've been playing together much better lately.) I think something in them realizes when you just can't handle too much stress and they behave accordingly. My favorite part was Allie wearing Joaquin's ugly black tennis shoes (they're for going in snow). She didn't want to wear hers (she had come over in pjs) but somehow Joaquin's were more exciting. We even went to Target and tried on other shoes, but she was still willing to put these suckers back on. I think the magic is simply that they were Joaquin's. She definitely loves to imitate him. Everything he did, she wanted to do. Fortunately Joaquin can be pretty good at coming up with little games. He had a great time showing Allie how to shine a flashlight into a balloon. He kept telling me it was liking watching TV. (Which I guess it kind of is.) He also kept laying on his back and waving the flashlight at the ceiling to show Allie the reflections. I guess Allie admired his technique b/c when Joaquin finally gave up control of the flashlight, this is what she did. Nice. Then we decorated gingerbread cookies. (It was a kit, I do not bake gingerbread since that involves molasses and I hate working with that stuff! I do not recommend it.) Joaquin and I had decorated one for the tree earlier, but Allie grabbed a cookie, smelled the ginger and immediately took a bite out of the head. After that some decoration took place but a lot of eating of the gumdrops and sprinkles also happened. Then when they were truly done decorating they switched cookies and ate each others. Don't ask me how children who can't share a box of crayons can happily eat each other's cookies. It makes absolutely no sense;I realize this, but I can't explain it. Allie even helped me put Joaquin down for a nap (we read a lot of books, but then he decided he was tired and crawled nicely into bed) and we watched cartoons until Grandma came to pick her up. (Her favorite is Curious George, but I quite enjoyed Winnie the Pooh and the Super Sleuths.) Good to know I can make two toddlers work for a full day - this parenting thing is a snap. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!!!

Arena de la Luna

For his birthday Auntie Boo-boo gave Joaquin Moonsand. Quite a messy toy but despite Daniel's messophobia they had a great time playing with it. My favorite part - Joaquin explaining to me when I got home that it wasn't really sand from the moon, they just pretended it was. :)

Segundo Cumpleaños

This was Joaquin's first real birthday party. We had all the usual trappings plus six of his buddies (and their assorted familes, grandparents, an auntie and a godmother, phew!). Our timing was perfect since Tia Lina and Allie had just got into town so we even had our out of town friends.

This is our fabulous cake. Joaquin and I bought a train cake mould which worked beautifully. Sadly enough we had more trouble with the rectangular cake we halved to create the boxcars. Go figure. However, Daniel did a great job covering most flaws with frosting and our engine looked very Thomas-y!

We removed our coffee-table and extraneous furniture, then pushed all the couches back against the wall to create a big open space. I brought out the trampoline and a bunch of cars and we kept all the kids out of the bedrooms to avoid squabbling over Joaquin's toys. (That worked very well - I highly recommend it!) Then we had games. Daniel and I created a bean-bag toss with some old boxes, socks, rubber bands and rice. The kids were actually pretty good at getting the 'bean-bags' in the holes, especially once they realized that standing closer meant you had a better chance of getting it in! This is Joaquin's friend Maia's dance of joy after getting a bean bag in. We also played Duck, Duck Goose, (a semi-modified form with a lot of parent participation, but it worked okay) and parachuted stuffed animals with a blanket. The kids were really good at the games (for their age). It's cute to watch them all growing up and beginning to understand the fun of a game with other people.

Since dinner was picnic style, I had chicken nuggets and raw veggies for the kids and pizza for the adults. (This is really why any toddler party should involve their parents as well. Who wants to help six toddlers eat?) Then we brought out the...... piñata! Daniel and our friend Juan Carlos have a slight piñata obsession and so every birthday from JC's first child on has included a piñata regardless of much the children want it. This particular piñata was a giant Ironman. I'm sure that exactly what Joaquin wanted, hmmmm..... The kids really went to town on it (oh the bravery of the fathers holding the piñata pole, they deserve a medal and maybe protective gear) but, like any well-made piñata, it needed some Daddy power to break that sucker open. After the piñata we sang Happy Birthday, blew out candles and chowed down on cake and ice cream (I told you this was a serious party, we neglected no tradition but that of Pin-the-tail-on-the-Donkey, pins seemed like asking for trouble!) After cake we opened the too numerous and too munificent presents Joaquin received and finally sent everyone home. Then mommy collapsed - okay not really but I kinda wanted to.

It only took two days to clean the house up and Joaquin got some really cool presents and memories so it was probably worth the hassle. It was also the social event of the Albuquerque 2009 toddler season (okay maybe not 'the' social event, but it was big!)

Primero Navidad y Primero Cumpleaños

Since Joaquin's birthday is in December he gets to celebrate a lot. This year we had a party for his friends and a pre-party that was also Christmas with Great-Grandma who is going to Chicagoe for Christmas. So this is first Christmas and first birthday with family. We had a good time and Joaquin and Grandma got presents. Honestly I haven't told Joaquin much about Santa Claus, but I can't imagine he'd care much. Who needs an imaginary man who brings you presents when everyone else you know is doing the same thing all through December?

Sweet! A Max & Ruby sticker book.

Here Great-Grandma, let me show you how to put this together. He actually helped me pick out her presents, so he had quite an opinion about them. Mostly he's hard to get into buying presents but that day he was excited.

This is a fabulous marker set that Great-grandma got for Joaquin. However Mommy inadvisably used one of the markers before Joaquin did and caused a ruckus. (I'm sorry!) He kept demanding that I put the color back in the marker. Daniel actually washed the paper out and pretended to put the color back in the marker (clever I thought), but we're not sure this was the best approach to take. He was just so heartbroken. Apparently he wants to be the first to break them in!

Súper Conejito

Sometimes Max runs around his house with a blanket tied around his neck pretending he's Superbunny. 'Nough said. (Max also stands in front of a fan to make his 'cape' flap. Recently Joaquin's been asking for a "cape fan".)

Chistosos

Apparently you can't just pick up tools. You have to pick them up with pliers. Joaquin recently delayed bath time by using this method to clean his room. Every little tool and every little screw had to be picked up with his pliers and carried over to his bench and dropped inside. It took forever! Fortunately mommy was amused by his antics and took pictures instead of getting seriously annoyed. Mostly I was impressed with his fine motor skills. It's not easy to used pliers to pick somethings up. Not to mention these are plastic toy pliers so their grabbing ability is not the best. We dropped quite a few things and had to re-pick them up but I think that only contributed to Joaquin's overall goal which was to delay going to bed!

So, we're introducing you now to a very important stuffed animal. This is Baxter. Joaquin has been very into kitties lately, as you may recall from a previous post. As part of our trip to London we left a present for Joaquin to open every night, because of his kitty obsession one of these presents was Baxter. He's the perfect size to lug around and he even came with a little book about his search for a home. Joaquin loves him devotedly and even knows that he is a tabby kitty. So in the future when you hear Baxter stories (and I'm sure you will), this is him! And, just for fun, here's a little story from Joaquin's sojourn at Grandma & Grandpa's house. Apparently one evening after being put to bed Joaquin spent some time talking to himself (he does this frequently). However he added a twist. At 10:30 my father hears him calling and goes into find him buck naked, holding his diaper and announcing he needed to go potty. Apparently we can only pee in a diaper if we're asleep! The child has never taken his clothes off for me so I find it very entertaining that he chose to do so for grandpa.

El Arbol de Navidad

We got home and immediately went into Christmas decorating mode (Okay, so immediately means the next morning, that's pretty immediate). Joaquin insisted we needed a popcorn chain, so we have one. (Totally forgot how annoying those are to make!) He also understands the importance of putting the star on top of the tree (Thank you Max & Ruby) so he and Daddy made sure to do that before any of the ornaments were on.

London

So we went to London. We had a fabulous time but it was without Joaquin so I'll make this an overview of the highlights rather than an exhaustive play-by-play. After all, this blog is title 'Everyday with Joaquin'. If we spend too much time without him no one will want to read about it! This is Daniel and I in front of Buckingham Palace. There are a lot of pictures of Daniel and I or Matthew and I in front of a famous building. I really should have thought this through more and brought multiple coats instead of multiple outfits, b/c I look basically the same in every picture. Okay, a few highlights.

1. Went to Oxford and got to meet Daniel's missionary friends from Ghana as well as hear the Anglican version of a cantata at their insanely old, totally beautiful church. (They were as friendly and loving as Daniel described them, and they felt like friends very quickly.) James, Gillian and Judith actually live in a little village called Cuddesdon and it looks like every American stereotype of English countryside. I loved it! Matt took us on his C.S. Lewis tour (The Kilns, Lewis's grave, the Eagle & Child, and his rooms at Oxford). We also wandered around the Oxford campus and Gillian got us into Magdalene College (pronounced Maudlin) since she was a member there as an undergrad. Oxford actually looks like every picture you've ever seen, and is doubly impressive b/c all these insanely beautiful and historic buildings are all jammed together. At both Oxford and Bath I had the hardest time making sense of people wearing modern clothing. It just didn't seem to fit. We also had the joy of experiencing socialized medicine since I suffered an allergy attack starting with hives in the back of my throat in the morning and moving on to a swollen lip and hives on my face. After discovering that they don't sell Benadryl over the counter in Britain (that dangerous drug that we give to children and pets), we made for the nearest A&E. Despite the long wait, I was given free drugs and seen by a doctor at no cost to me. Since I don't have to pay for it (even in the form of taxes), I'm definitely a fan!

2. We went to Bath. Imagine a town of pretty buildings that all match - that's Bath. The Abbey was beautiful, and full of the most touching inscriptions (from the 1600, 1700 and 1800s!) to departed loved ones. They had such assurance of their salvation and of seeing their loved ones again that it was very encouraging. We also were there on the day of their Christmas fair which is like the cutest craft fair ever since they have they little matching booths for everyone. (Too bad it was freezing!) We walked by the Pump Room and I thought of Jane Austen before we toured the Roman baths. They were very interesting and Matthew and my goofy engineer had a great time seeing how everything worked.

3. Meeting many of Matthew's friends. All of them were very nice and it was so encouraging to realized he has that many people to fall back on when he needs love or help.

4. Touring around London and attending Evensong at Westminister Abbey! Oh the music was beautiful, especially in that space with all the echoes and harmonics, etc. (Is that the technical term for what I mean, or am I totally misusing that?) (Charles Darwin, Faraday and Issac Newton are all buried at Westminster so we got to see their graves. Thrilled our dorky scientist hearts to no end.)

5. The British museum - holy cow! Could have spent weeks there I think. I saw the actual Rosetta Stone and Daniel ate up the Assyrian exhibit since he's been learning all about them in his seminary class this fall.

Flew home (really recommend British Airways by the way) and Joaquin only ignored me for about 12 hrs. Daddy was forgiven quickly, but apparently Mommy is not allowed to leave him.

Besos de los Gatitos

These particular pictures are from the night before we left for London. We were getting a little sad about leaving our big boy, so we spent Thanksgiving night playing with him. (This is after an exciting Thanksgiving day. Joaquin was, as usual, the only small child, but he was a total angel. He took a long nap with Daddy after Thanksgiving lunch and even tried stuffing.) He looks so cute in his robe when he's all clean and fresh so we got very giggly and took pictures. You can see that this picture is Joaquin making faces at himself in the mirror - he loves to do that. I try never to let him start a fit in the bathroom b/c it always lasts longer as he is admiring his crying face in the mirror, seriously! Daniel decided to make a short movie while he was being so charming and Joaquin consented to show us his 'meowing'. He's almost always a kitty nowadays and sometimes all he can do is meow. (This means I'm frequently mama kitty.) After he was done meowing, Daniel told him to kiss Mama kitty. Imagine my surprise when he leaned over and licked me! Apparently, as he told me later, that's how kitties kiss. I guess it makes sense, everytime Chita licks him, we tell him she's kissing him. He's just making a logical jump... sort of. He was delighted at our reaction and Daddy got several more kitty kisses that evening (I was wise enough to stay out of reach). And then we left for London, leaving Joaquin and his new kitty kisses for Grandma to deal with!

Uvas plásticas

This is Daniel and Joaquin at Hobby Lobby. (We went to look for some material.) Would you like to know what Joaquin calls Hobby Lobby? The store with plastic grapes. He's very accurate, most of their little displays have plastic grapes all over them. He has a great time informing me every time he sees more plastic grapes (this is usually about every 30 seconds at Hobby Lobby, makes our trips repetitive and somewhat annoying.) When I say, "we're going to Hobby Lobby" he says, "Do they have plastic grapes there?" Ha, ha, ha!

And this is just a cute picture of Joaquin and Chita watching tv. I love how she's actually content to sit there with his hand on her. They're getting better about being with each other, except when Joaquin wants to 'hold' her. Chita is not a fan.

Hojas

Normally a combination of mild weather and wind mean that raking leaves in Albuquerque isn't much of an activity. For the most part there aren't that many leaves, they don't usually fall down at the same time, and it's so windy that many blow away before you have a chance to round them up. However a cold snap followed by a few gorgeous days meant that all the leaves had fallen together and it was so nice outside that you wanted to go out and pick them up. Having been indoctrinated by Max & Ruby (does it sound like our life revolves around Max & Ruby?) Joaquin is aware of the fun of raking leaves and willingly went out to 'help' Daddy. He also participated in the fun tradition of ruining Daddy's hard work by stomping through leaf piles. Eventually Daniel had to turn on the leaf blower (Joaquin hates leaf blowers because of the noise), but even then he was very brave. It was actually very cute because he's old enough to pretend with just about anything, and sticks have become very fun. So he spent most of the clean-up time poking holes in leaves with sticks to create flags or windsocks. He also enjoyed the plastic rack Daniel winds the extension cord around. I have no clue what he's doing to the tree with it in this picture, but he had a great time!

Infernáculo

Max & Ruby recently had a new episode about hopscotch. This really took hold of Joaquin's imagination for some reason (he could not possible hop on one foot, but maybe he wants to). So the other day he got out some chalk and made his own hopscotch board on our patio. (Before you ask why my son is outside in November wearing only a t-shirt and undies, I will tell you that he had been wearing pants and a jacket before, but had gone inside to make a potty when I called him back out to pose by his creation.) I was very impressed since he totally got it correct; he even had a few spaces with two squares. He walked up and down it counting (There's too many squares for traditional hopscotch, but that doesn't matter). He even got a few stones to throw on squares. What with learning dominoes (she has a set with pictures instead of dots) at Mi-mo's house and playing Duck Duck Goose at Little Gym, this makes 3 real games Joaquin sort of knows how to play. (I say real as opposed to his repetitive word games that he makes up.) How fun to be so new to the world that you're just learning the concept of games!

Joaquín y Amigo

We had a joyous reunion with a friend Joaquin hasn't spent much time with lately due to the birth of his new baby sister. Joaquin was wildly delighted to see his buddy again despite some tiffs about sharing. I'm just excited they're finally getting old enough that arts and crafts entertain them for a good period of time. The boys had fun 'painting' with water and even experimented with using the stick end of the paintbrush instead of the brush. As you can imagine, this didn't work well but it did result in a ton of giggles. I'm discovering that there is nothing goofier than a toddler. They even beat out teenage girls, which is impressive. Joaquin is getting a little better at sharing and playing with other kids. (I said a little, not good at by any means) His friend Maia came over the other day and they spent 45 minutes out in the sandbox with no supervision but her mother and my ears. There was no yelling or fighting and they only came in to warm up and eat! Plus they had a nice little exchange where Joaquin asked very nicely if he could jump on the trampoline with her, she said yes, and they jumped contently together. I was very pleased, but I am noticing that while playing with other little boys is more fun, sharing and cooperative play is a lot easier with little girls. Hmmm.....

Papá y Joaquin

November has been rather mild so we've been enjoying more outside activities in an attempt to make the most of it. I actually enjoy being outside now more than in the summer since the sun isn't beating down on me mercilessly. Daniel and Joaquin spent the Saturday mommy was at Homespun Holidays going to the zoo. They apparently had a fun time looking at the animals and an even more fun time playing on the playground. The zoo has this fantastic jungle gym of immense proportions that Joaquin is brave enough to climb all of. Apparently heights and wibbly floors don't bother him, just tunnels. He has yet to make it really far into any McDonald's playsets without adult chaperonage. Probably a good thing considering the uncleanliness of said tunnels. So Joaquin channeled his inner monkey while Daddy took pictures. They even had a picnic on the grass (that Daniel packed and brought with them, isn't he an amazing Daddy?). We've also been trying to finish projects before the weather gets too awful. We've been working on some planters for all my bulbs for a ridiculous amount of time. Unfortunately Saturday's seem to get eaten up recently, but we have made some progress. This picture is Joaquin and Daniel sanding pieces so we could paint them. Both Joaquin and I have a cold and the dust from the sander caused us to cough so we pulled out the dust masks. Joaquin was relatively cooperative about wearing his, but it was actually rather hard to look at. This picture doesn't really do it justice, but he had an adorable somewhat poignant look about him. It was vaguely reminiscent of those heart-wrenching pictures of small children in countries ravanged by some disease. Those little eyes peering over the white mask were very touching. Luckily he didn't ask for a pony or anything else unreasonable while wearing it b/c I probably would have given it to him!

El pequeñín

Joaquin grew another half inch lately, which makes two inches since April. If you think of that as a percentage of his total height it's absolutely ridiculous. It's also really sad b/c his little body really looks like a boy and not a toddler. He's getting so leggy (evidence; picture on left) that it makes my heart hurt a little. Fortunately he still does lots of things to help me realize how young he still is. First of all, despite being extremely verbal (I'm saying that semi-sarcastically at first it was nice to be able to talk, then I was proud, now I'm just tired of answering questions!) he's still difficult to understand on occasion. My favorite - the kieled sign. He shouts out in the car "Kieled, Kieled!" which means he's seen a Yield sign. Now it's just fun and I say, "oh yeah I see the yield sign" but before I figured out what he was talking about, he got very frustrated at me. I'm most entertained when he tells me, "Mommy we're going to kieled". It sounds like I have a baby gangster in the backseat urging me on a hit. He also has trouble with automatic, he swallows the beginning and ending vowels almost completely. We were walking to the bathroom in the grocery store the other day (he now loves to visit the potty at any store we're at - do you know what bathrooms are like at grocery stores? Let's hope you never do) and he asks me in his piercing voice, "Is this potty a maggot potty?" While I'm looking at him confused a woman walks by looking at me in horror. I don't know what she thought, it's not like maggot potty is an obvious bad word or something, I would have simply assumed I didn't understand what he was saying, but whatever! Finally he told me, "Is it a maggot potty or do we have to flush it?" All was made clear. He's also such a baby still about clothes. He really has little to no interest in dressing or even undressing himself. We practice and he can kind of do it, but not without serious supervision. However he was apparently enjoying his after nap semi-nudity the other day and protested strenuously when I put a shirt on him. Since I ignored him (the house was cold!) he tried to take it off himself with this result. After I finished laughing at him I did take it off him but it did make me realize he's light years from self-sufficiency even in small matters. Finally, he's still a ridiculously messy eater. Most of this comes from taking too big of bites so bits fly off the spoon when he puts them in his mouth, but some comes from weird habits he has. For example, he refuses to let us cut PB&J sandwiches into manageable sizes. He wants the whole two slice sandwich in one piece. And then he just eats straight down the middle letting the sides ride up his face and smear his cheeks with crumbs, jelly and peanut butter. Lovely clean-up that. This annoys Daniel excessively (I think it just seems really inefficient which is hard for Daniel), so he has attempted to show Joaquin how to eat from the sides as well without any noticeable success. Why change an eating pattern that works just because it makes a mess that you don't have to clean up? Anyway despite new height and potty training, he's still really little. Thank goodness!

La mente de Joaquin

Joaquin loves to pretend. He's also pretty good at pretending while by himself. This is nice for two reasons; 1. Mommy doesn't have to come up with a game and pretend with him (fortunately, since I'm not that creative lately) and 2. That means I can sit and listen to what is going on in his head! And it is hysterical. So, for your enjoyment, here's a few stories that tell you what is going on in Joaquin's head.

When I get Joaquin up in the morning he has frequently been lying there thinking of ways to play with his toys. He'll jump up and start playing for awhile before I can persuade him to eat breakfast. On this particular morning he wanted to play kitchen and he started putting food in his 'blender'. His blender is a little bug trapping box from a Chick-fil-a kid's meal. It's round and has a lid which is all the resemblance to a blender it actually has, but it has been a blender almost from the moment he got it. First he squeezed normal things into it like an orange and an apple (well plastic versions of normal things), but then he moved on to much more inventive things like broccoli. He started by chopping it nicely on his cutting board and then 'squeezed' it into his blender. I don't know what he was making as he never actually blended it, but it would have been unusual.

This story is very old, but it was so entertaining that it shouldn't be forgotten. Shortly after our trip to the Dixon apple farm, my mother and Joaquin were talking about how the leaves would all turn colors and fall from the trees. Since our little dwarf peach tree turns colors and looses it's leaves very early, it was already a pretty orange color at this point so Joaquin said, "like my peach tree". "Yes," my mother said, "and then all the leaves will fall off." Joaquin thought for a moment and said, "And then it will have apples."

One day Joaquin and I were stretching (long story) and I showed him how to put his feet together, fold his knees and flap them up and down to pretend to be a butterfly. (This is something we did at the one year of ballet I took as a child.) He loved this and we flapped and then jumped up and sat back down again on yellow dandelions, purple dandelions (every flower was a dandelion at the time) and umbrellas (I don't understand either, he came up with it). He's adapted the leg flap since then, but this is a game he demands frequently. Incredibly adorably he calls me 'Mama Butterfly' whenever he wants to play this game or whenever he's feeling affectionate.

He's also been obsessed with an old book from my childhood called "The Color Kittens". Since the kittens have buckets and buckets of paint to mix colors with, he tells me frequently, "when I was a kitten I would have buckets and buckets of paint to paint with". (The tense confusion is original to Joaquin) I find this very amusing especially since now my name has changed to 'Mama kitten'.

He also sees the world in family groupings. Couples confuse him so he usually refers to the other half of a couple as their friend. He has many stuffed puppies that are all a family; Mommy puppy, Daddy puppy, Baby puppy and Wiggly. (Don't ask me why Wiggly is his own dog, Joaquin doesn't think in terms of siblings yet since he doesn't have one so Wiggly is just the odd man out.) Sadly Daddy puppy is infrequently played with since he's usually at work! Daniel thinks this is horrifying assuming Joaquin think's he's always at work. I think four puppies is just too many characters to play with so Joaquin is getting rid of him nicely. He also likes to give them pretend bones (he tells me he's carrying them in his pocket every time we take Wiggly in the car with us. Just in case Wiggly gets hungry.) and beans (that's what he calls dog food - it does bear a distinct resemblance to pinto beans, the beans he's most familiary with.)

He's also getting to the point where he's very decided on some points and I can never convince him I'm right. For example, he's decided that the black parts are wheels and the hubcaps are the tires. I can never make him believe that the wheels are the wheels and the tires are the tires. In fact he gets quite angry at me and insists it's the other way around. Such distrust in my abilities, considering I've never really steered him wrong it's a little weird. But he's got a very organized little world in his head and he hates when I disrupt it.

El Avión

Joaquin absolutely loves to pretend he's an airplane. Very normal for a little boy I think, but he puts a twist on it. Instead of spreading his arms out wide for wings, he puts them straight in front of him and moves his hands around making engine noises. His arms are the engines of his airplane and when you ask him where his wings are, he will point to his shoulders. This was the inspiration behind his Halloween costume. For Halloween, Joaquin was a ..... Southwest 737! I made it myself out of posterboard (honesty forces me to admit that Daniel helped me shape it, but I honestly designed it all myself and painted it!) Joaquin was somewhat annoyed by the fact that he kept running into things, but endured for the sake of candy collection. (I told him no one would give him candy if he didn't have a costume, which is at least somewhat true.) He also had fun vrooming his engines and pretending he was an airplane while he looked like one. We trick or treated around our neighborhood, stopping by all the families with kids and then visited the Sturdy's before heading to Grandma and Grandpa's. Joaquin got the hang of trick or treating quite quickly once his first proclamation of "trick or treat" was met with gushes of "how cute" and a handful of candy. In fact his trick or treats became so loud we had to calm him down. After we got to my parents he spent the evening helping them pass out candy while Mommy and Daddy went to go see Dracula, the musical? It was a fabulous Halloween.