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.