Brinca, Brinca

So we've discovered a new phenomena, jump places. There are two in Albuquerque that I know of and they are basically a large facility with ginormous jump houses/bouncers/slides inside them. We went to one recently for a birthday party. (I know! We have fancy friends apparently. The only problem is I hope Joaquin won't start getting ideas. I'm way too cheap for this sort of thing.) Anyhoo, we had a good time although Joaquin got bored with the jumpers after awhile and played video games. At least he thought he was playing videos games b/c the computer was running a simulation. His frantic joysticking did nothing, but as he didn't know that he had a great time. It was a really great birthday party, the plus being parents got to jump/slide too. I had a wonderful time, probably used the slides more than Joaquin. We even took Joaquin's friend Caleb with us since he was invited but his parents were busy moving. So Daniel and I were the parents of very hyper 3-year twins that day. Turned out nice though since Caleb was having such a good time that it gave me more excuses to go on the slides.

Cantamos

Here's a picture of one of Joaquin's latest creations. Look how symmetrical it is! I was very impressed, he did that all by himself.

So, funny story, whenever he swings, Joaquin likes to sing. Not sure why the two are associated in his mind, especially since in general he prefers not to sing in public. (public even occasionally includes me) However while swinging he generally sings the entire time; which is entertaining b/c he can swing for a really long time. You also need to know that we have a children's CD with a fun rendition of the alphabet song. First they sing the song, then they sing it cowboy style (kinda slow), then classical style (a ringing soprano voice) and finally with added words for every letter. So Joaquin starts singing the ABCs, no big deal, but when he finishes he says, "I wonder how a coupla cowboys might sing this song. I think they'd sing it kinda slow." (Which is EXACTLY what they say on the CD) and then proceeds to re-sing the ABCs at an extremely funereal tempo. Then he tries it classical style which involved him singing it really high and in a funny sort of baby voice to try and imitate the woman. Finally he attempted to sing the version with added words but he doesn't remember most of them so it's just sounds until he gets to, "S, S, S, sunshine!" By this point I was laughing so hard I almost couldn't push. Who knew he had all that in there? (In case you're wondering he can still sing the Christmas jingle for the new Christmas episodes of Max & Ruby. He proved it this day also, "hop, hop, hop, hop, hop, hop, hoppy holidays, etc.)

Triciclo

On to another important symbol of childhood, the trike! (Which Joaquin refuses to say, instead calling it his bike or bicycle.) This beautiful tricycle is a gift from our neighbors whose little girls are really the perfect age to be giving hand-me-downs to Joaquin. We've avoided buying one b/c none of them seemed to be a good size for Joaquin, but this fits him perfectly. We tried it the first day without adjusting it and it worked okay, but Daddy shortened it and now he can push it much easier. We've gone out practicing twice now and he's really getting the hang of it. Once he gets it going he can make it work pretty good, but it's easy to get stuck on a tricycle with the pedals at about equal heights. This makes it pretty difficult to get moving again, so I've been trying to teach the technique of letting the trike roll backward to get the pedals in a more advantageous position. The hardest part of the whole learning process is that Joaquin will only focus for a few minutes. Then he's distracted by the asphalt, the crack in the sidewalk, somebody's bushes, the stop sign, basically everything needs to be talked about and some question asked of Mommy. It got so bad I actually said, "No more talking, just pushing" at one point. (There's a reason I work with high schoolers, not the little guys.) Despite my crabbiness and his distractability he is making great strides on pedaling though. He can really get it going down-hill (he loves that!) and does a pretty good job on a flat stretch. We're not attempting any uphill work since I hate to discourage him. Now if we can only learn to steer!

A Las Escondida

Saturday we celebrated Grandma's birthday with dinner at our house and a rousing game of Hide and Seek. This picture is somewhat misleading b/c of the flash. We actually turned off most of the lights in the house, making it that much more difficult to find people. (Not that it was difficult, our house is not that big.) This is Joaquin and Daddy about to uncover Grandma stealthily hiding behind the curtain. She is actually amazing at hiding behind doors and curtains b/c she can stand really still and make herself really flat so you don't notice she's there. Joaquin took turns hiding with different family members (all the boys that is, he kept picking them) and then finding everyone with Daddy's help. Here they are counting while covering their eyes. You cannot imagine anything cuter than Joaquin's piercing little voice counting to 10 as "One bunny scout, two bunny scout, three bunny scout" (from Max & Ruby, did you really need to ask?) and then shouting, "Ready or not, here we come!" I think my mother and Brian are really the best hiders, but my Dad gets an honorable mention for fitting into my hall closet. (It's shallow and really full of coats, a vacuum, a picnic basket, a pack n'play, etc.) Heather also managed a fabulous coup where she arranged herself artfully on my bed, posing as one of the coats. Indeed she was so successful that I accidentally felt her up thinking she was a coat. Kudos, Boo-boo. Anyway, for Uncle Matty here's a blurry family picture of everyone but me (someone had to take it), that wins the photo award merely b/c Joaquin is actually looking at the camera. Here's to family gatherings that include silly childhood games, most fun I've had in a long time.

Judía

What's a boy to do when he wants to pretend he's climbing a beanstalk and there isn't one handy? Use Daddy of course! He's the tallest climbable thing around. (Sort of) I came in and Daniel was kneeling on the bed laughing while Joaquin tried to climb up him while telling him about how he would find lots of good food at the top of the beanstalk. So a few more examples of Joaquin humor:

1. Loves switching things he knows to be true. Always says, "Red means go and green means stop!" and then laughs uproariously. This was also true when I found him one day playing with the little pretend hamburger patties he has and calling them cookies. I told him, "Joaquin, those are meat patties, not cookies." He refused to agree with me, kept calling them cookies, and then deliberately brought it up again at bed time as a joke. At first I didn't get it, so he told me, "They're cookies mommy, no they're meat patties, no they're cookies!"

2. This 'witty' banter is evident in all his humor. He also likes to play with grammer. We have a game where he says, "My name is me and your name is you!". The response is, "No, my name is me, and your name is you." Repeat ad nauseum.

3. Likes to repeat whole scenes/sentences from Max & Ruby, only changing them by adding mommy in instead of the original names. For example one character says in an episode, "Sorry, Ruby, I guess I need more lessons." So anytime he does something and it doesn't work he says to me, "Sorry, Mommy, I guess I need more lessons" in exactly the same inflection.

Burbujas en el Martes

Since both Daniel and I are singing in choir this year, Joaquin gets to play with Jenna at church while we rehearse. (He spends every other week with Grandma but since she watches him a lot we don't want to burn her out and the church was kind enough to pay Jenna for this service.) The first week he was a little underwhelmed at the idea of going to play with toys, so they played around in the kitchen with the cool industrial spray faucet. Wow! He was soooooooo wet. Since it was so fun he now thinks Tuesday nights are his nights to play in the kitchen with Jenna. We've settled on either stripping him to his undies or bringing a large t-shirt for him to get wet in. This results in many folks (strolling by on their way to biblestudy or late to choir) telling me about how they saw Joaquin in his underwear. Last week was play with bubbles week. He and Jenna put a little dishsoap in the sink and went to town! (Check his bubble hat in this picture.) Jenna took this picture and video on her cell phone to show to Uncle Matty! Hi Uncle Matty - obviously we're still thinking about you.

Pirámide

Despite the random overnight snowstorms, it's really become warm. Thursday was absolutely gorgeous so Joaquin and I went to the park after lunch. This picture just shows how big Joaquin looks. He's calmly walking up these, holding the rail, when last summer it would have been a difficult clamber. He hasn't really grown since about December but I feel like he looks more like a little boy every day. I took out his shorts to try them all on and the sight of him looking all leggy and tall almost made me cry. (By the way Dora - don't buy him any shorts, he currently has 9 that fit him. I can't store anymore!) We met some acquaintances of ours and Joaquin and the little girl had fun playing with a pyramid made of metal grates that guards the opening of some large drainage pipes. I appreciate the big grates as a safety feature, but they are certainly interesting as well. Joaquin dropped maybe a million sticks/rocks inside. However I paid for our fun with a ridiculous sunburn on my chest. I hadn't planned to be out that long but got started talking (gee, I know you're all shocked) and we stayed out for TWO HOURS. Of course I had forgot to put sunscreen on so while my face was protected by make-up, the front of me crisped. You might be wondering if I was a good enough mom to remember sunscreen for Joaquin. No I wasn't, but don't worry, all he got was some rosy cheeks. Mexi-screen wins again! (That term is Daniel's)

Constructorito

I realize I do a lot of blogs about Duplos, and I'm sorry. But they're some of the biggest things in Joaquin's world currently and this blog is all about what he's interested in. So if you're not (interested that is) you'll just have to lump it. This particular piece, is an engine, not a water cycle as you might imagine. This is only a mid stage, but I was amused by the plastic 'wood' boards that formed a trail from his bed to the engine. If you're wondering, it's a pathway for the water to run in. (That's from Joaquin's mouth, I found it confusing as well) From this front view, you can see how elaborate this particular structure was. Notice also, the multi-media aspect. It included, legos, wooden blocks, a wooden train engine, plastic 'wood' planks from his tools, colored screws, wedgits and some baby spoons. If you don't believe me, click on the picture, I think you can see most of those. It was up in his room for a week or so before we finally took it down. I made him clean up the accessories for it that were traveling all over his room since it made playing in there very difficult. While that caused hysterics; once he came to grips with it he decided to tear down the whole thing. After that we had a large, tall square structure that was a storage container for water. He kept showing me how big it was and talking about how much water it could hold. Then this morning he dragged me in to his room to show me the 'turret' (his word, thanks 'Max & Ruby') he made. As I made admiring noises he told me how a princess lived there and she had a bed and a fridge and food and knives and spoons. (It's important to have all the essentials.) Here it is, I was impressed by the creative construction on this one. The real joy of Duplos is this; we appear to be over the resisting pooping hump. We resorted to bribing him with some blocks and chocolate if he pooed. After a day of antibiotic-induced diarrhea he started to see the extreme profitability of this and we're now about to run out of blocks! So God bless Duplos!

Sabado en el Parque

So I realize that this is Wednesday and this post is about Saturday, but even though Saturday was mostly pleasant we had another one of these freakish cold spells inbetween then and now so if felt weird to blog about our day in the park. Fortunately today was gorgeous so I'm inspired! Saturday morning was nice, so Daniel got some work done on Joaquin's bed and Joaquin (wearing his new work outfit of multiple layers of Daddy paint shirts) played around with his new toy. It's .... something on a string! Yes, he has discovered the age old joy of draggin something around on a string. This happened to be a piece of metal so it had the added bonus of making cool noises on things. Then I went out to water some pots and he remembered what fun the hose is! Despite the fact that it wasn't warm enough to make getting wet fun he had a short-lived blast before getting ridiculously chilly. It was actually really cute, he was all shivery and his little lips turned purple. I totally remember my little brother doing that after we pulled him out of the pool. Even when it got too cold to swim, Matthew was a fish so he usually ended most swimming afternoons as a ridiculously cold little guy. (That might also be because our favorite pool wasn't heated and he had like no body fat.) After getting all chilled we decided to warm up by putting on fresh (i.e. dry) clothes and having a picnic lunch at the park. We weren't the only family to have this particular brainstorm, but the park wasn't too packed for fun. First Joaquin and Daddy played on the playground while I tried to convince Chita to stretch her legs and be tough. (She's had a little too much of the whole I'm a lap dog thing going on lately.)

After watching my (probably somewhat sad) attempts, Daniel decided to take over and get Chita really moving, which resulted in some fun action shots of them. Here's Daniel and Chita, and here's Joaquin in 'hot' pursuit. That's his football he's holding (somewhat murderously), after awhile he gave up on catching them and was trying to throw his football at them and so 'catch' Chita. Then home for deserved R&R.

La Siesta de Baxter

On this particular day, Joaquin made a fairly elaborate watercycle. After explaining it's functions in depth (see the video) he decided that Baxter needed to get in his car and see the water cycle. So he squished this poor stuffed animal into one of his cars and 'drove' to the watercycle, where Baxter was treated to the lecture he had just given me. He had a few blocks left, so he decided to use them for Baxter. This is Baxter's "pillow". He laid Baxter down very carefully and then tenderly sang him "Jesus Loves Me" to help him go to sleep.

Cuentando

May & Ruby recently had an episode where Ruby was attempting to count gummi worms in a jar using hash marks, which she dutifully explained to Max. So I found Joaquin doing this (if you can't see his hash marks, click on the picture) the other day. Doesn't really get the purpose, but he kept quoting the show while doing it.

¡Levante Lejos!

Oh the wild and wacky world that Joaquin inhabits. He has so much going on in his mind and when you understand what he's talking about, it's really a hoot. Sometimes it's hard b/c he's making little independent plans and part of you is proud of him, while the other part doesn't want him to enact them b/c they'll be very messy and potentially dangerous. Also, he's got to start learning how to listen to adults the first time, instead of after they show him why their way is better. Teachers HATE when you demand to do it your way until someone proves their way would be easier. Then again, his little plans and ways of doing things are kind of cute. Today at Grandma's house while I was distracted talking to my mom, he went and got a stool, then a watering-can and filled it up at the sink. He was trying manfully to lift the very full water-can without spilling water everywhere (unsuccessfully) b/c he felt the geraniums in the sunroom needed watering. At this point I stepped in to help so he told me where to go (sunroom), and what to water, down to the specific plants. Sometimes he latches onto a routine and you can't deviate from it, but he's so adorable when he tells you exactly how it should go, how can I resist? Ahh the 'joy' of a having a three-yr old. So here' s a few silly Joaquin moments.

1. His new game with a jacket is to pull on hand inside the arm, wave it around and tell me it's a windsock. (Yes he still really likes those.) Then he waves his arm frantically and shouts, "Look, it's really windy Mom!"

2. His "watercycles" become more elaborate every time we build a new one. The latest had wheels (from little wheeled bases Lego provides) on it that the water would spin over, at least that's what Joaquin informed me. He also piled a bunch of wooden blocks on top of the water cycle and told me they were special batteries that would still work when they got wet.

3. At W.O.W. craft time he made a flower out of a paper plate, construction paper and sand paper. His teacher Susan had drawn little red dots in the center of the plates to show them where to attach their paper petals. While Joaquin's attention span is normally seconds long, he apparently got excited by this task, so he carefully and exactly glued his petals with one end perfectly lined up on the dot. Susan said it took him a long time, but he did it all himself. Seriously this flower looks like it was made by a much older kid. He's totally like this, if he cares about something, nothing will distract him or make him give up; if he doesn't care nothing will make him care.

4. This video is of Joaquin and his spaceshuttle that Grandpa-pa got for him at some museum in San Diego. I showed him how a space shuttle takes off (10 ..9...8...7, etc. Lift off!) and he and Daddy watched internet movies of spaceshuttle lanches. This is Joaquin's take on the process. (Obviously we need a little work on counting over twenty, but I love how exciting this event is.)

La Primavera

You wouldn't know it from this week, but last week Spring came to Albuquerque. (I truly hate the schizophrenic nature of March in Albuquerque, pick a season and stick with it!) Ever since Daniel 'finished' my lovely planters, I've been yearning to go dig up my bulbs and replant them in their new home. Thursday was so gorgeous Joaquin and I spent the entire morning in the yard. Me digging and replanting, Joaquin playing. While he did whine occasionally for me to come down off the plant ledge and play with him, for the most part he was quite independent and fun. I had a great time, most of my bulbs were sending up little green shoots. (There is no green like early spring baby plants. It's the most gorgeous color ever!) I dug (feeling a little like a murderer since several plants died along the way) and had philosophical thoughts about spring and renewal, rebirth, Christ's resurrection, etc. while Joaquin made road signs in his sandbox. The circular shovel was a stop sign, the other shovel a 'kield' sign and the rakes were to hold up telephone wires. We were so cute and outdoorsy. If only we were British and I was wearing tweeds and pearls, we could have been some illustration from "A Child's Garden of Verses".

Una Siesta con Papá

After an hour of playing when he was supposed to be napping, Daniel went into 'calm' Joaquin down. I heard some whining noises as Joaquin protested, then nothing. An hour and a half later I went in to see why Daniel never came out and this is what I found. Doesn't it look like they were doing something and sleep just knocked them out in the midst of it?

Joaquín Solo

This semester, Joaquin has been taking a Little Gym class, BY HIMSELF! That is, without Mommy in there as well. While he looks adorable obedient and with it in this picture, I'm afraid he is actually quite squirrely in class. The idea of doing what the rest of the group is doing even if it's not exactly what you want to do, is utterly foreign to Joaquin. He just wanders off and has to be gathered back up. Fortunately, while he's probably the most unstructured child there, there's a few other goofy little boys that also need constant re-focusing. My favorite is a little cutie named Xavier. What's entertaining to me about Xavier is that he, Joaquin and a little girl named Shasta are friends. One day they were playing Hide-and-Seek and the teacher ran over to them crying, "I found you, Joaquin, Xavier and Shasta!" and I thought, that teacher must hate all of us parents! Whatever happened to Bob and Mike? Anyway, here's a more realistic picture of Joaquin doing something totally different than anybody else, not even really paying attention to anyone else. Still, there's really positive things about Joaquin in his class.

1. He went in on the first day without me with not a whine or a fuss, just a wave and a walk. He continues to remain happily in the room without me the entire time - in contrast to most of the other children in the class. (Even the ones older them him)

2. He's learning structure, sort of. He's beginning to get the idea that now is the time we go here, everybody line up and go together, etc. He'll participate in lining up to go somewhere and often stay in the area he's supposed to. That's progress!

3. He tries more skills without me, trying to keep up with the bigger kids I think. He's also braver about taking a fall. I saw him fall on the beam last week and land with his little crotch on the beam. He looked very shocked, paused, then picked himself up and GOT BACK ON THE BEAM! (Admittedly he was holding very tight to handbars that were next to it, but still!)

4. He's having an absolutely fantastic time. It might be organized chaos, but he thinks it's the best thing in the world.

Memoria

Joaquin so enjoyed the stamping we did on the Valentine's he made that we decided to do some more stamping and make ourselves a memory game. (Somewhat sadly a few days later I discovered a memory game somebody had recently given us in my closet, oh well! There's 20 bucks or so I'm never getting back!) We got a cheapy package of stamps and some cardstock, and used mommy's ink pads to make two cards with every stamp. Then I taught Joaquin how to play. While he's still not good on leaving the cards where he picked them up, and I have to force him to let me take a turn, he's actually pretty good at remembering where the cards were. I'd say he gets an A for memory (taking into account his age) and a C for game playing savvy.