En la Casa de Amadu

Once in Ft. Collins, we were priviledged to meet Miss Yasmin Amadu, who is a very cute and very determined little baby. We were trying to be helpful to Patience and yet keep Joaquin from going stir crazy, not an easy line to walk. Fortunately Patience and Yasmin both usually napped in the morning (recovering from a less than restful night), so we went places. Before Daniel left we went to their down/old town which is a cute little area with some fun shops and a ton of restaurants. We found a neat little toy shop and Joaquin got a slugabug car. We also got have dinner with our friends Abby & Craig which was very fun and entertainingly adult. I always find myself a little weirded out when I do that something that I remember my parents doing in my childhood. I remember going on vacation and spending an evening with an old college friend or old high school friend of my mom's. To do it myself felt a little like a rite of passage, somehow different from vacationing at a friend's house. Once Daddy left Joaquin got a little more restless, but we made it through with the help of a playground in the Amadu's apartment complex, and a few outings. I think we were overall helpful and I had a good time getting to know Patience better. So here's a few pictures of our time.

Joaquin in a Ghanaian (sp?) hat Patience gave him. He's quite fond of it, probably b/c it actually fits! A novelty in Joaquin's life.

Joaquin holding Yasmin. He was actually quite interested in Yasmin and told me how cute she was. This is despite being told to be quiet for her sake frequently. Kind of pointless since she could sleep through anything if she wanted to, and nothing put her to sleep if she didn't! Still despite his lack of indoor voice skills, he was relatively good and nice about the baby.

Joaquin on a plastic Triceratops in a park we went to. He had a great time since he was quite wound up by this point. He found a stick and pretended it was first a lawn mower, then a leaf blower and then a walking stick. My favorite was when he told me he was 'lawning the grass' with it. That's a reasonable assumption to make with the name lawn mower and knowing you cut grass with it, but still wildly funny. I attempted to correct him, but he wouldn't believe me! This happens a lot with an assumption he's made based on words. He just won't believe that English is a severly inconsistent language and wants his inferences to be correct. It took me awhile to convince him that muffler pipes did not let out smoke and 'muffle'. I had to explain that they were called muffler pipes b/c they also muffle the noise of the engine. Even then I only think he listened b/c Daniel had already told him that an engine without a muffler pipe was loud. Not sure why he's so suspicious of my explanations, but the trait of thinking he knows best about everything comes from both sides!