Mi Primer Día de la Escuela

So our internet has been spotty lately, leaving me very little time to blog. So this is a very late blog for what a momentous occasion it commemorates. This picture is of Joaquin on his first day of school! What a big boy he is. You can see his backpack peeping out over his shoulders. Due to the dirth of small backpacks and the need to carry a lunchbag and a change of clothes, this backpack is rather ludicrously large for him. However he doesn't have to carry it very far so it's okay. Joaquin was very excited about school, he's been asking to go since he realized that most of those big playgrounds we pass are attached to schools. He was a little depressed that he couldn't go to Dennis Chavez (an elementary school near us that we pass frequently), but after we went to an open house to meet his teachers, he was excited about his school also. Still, the first day he was a little quiet at breakfast and in the car. As we checked him in and walked to his classroom he was very quiet. I was nervous that he was getting scared and would be sad for me to leave. (I had very carefully explained how I was going to leave and he would have his lunch there and then I would pick him up, etc.) We get to the classroom, he sees a cool toy (picture on right) and walks away from me without a word. I had to pull him over to say goodbye and give me a hug. I had one of the teachers take our picture, which is really funny b/c you can see him already going for another toy. He stopped long enough for a brief cheese, so brief the camera couldn't even capture it, before exploring more. Such a clingy child he is. Fortunately his super chill attitude

about school has continued, he enjoys it a lot. Plus his ease kept mommy from getting choked up. This last picture is Joaquin's name, done in noodles. This project was done on his first day and I love it! Doesn't it look fabulous? Since then we've made lots of projects (I'm going to have to figure out what to do with them) and I've discovered how Joaquin signs his name with no adult input. In very shaky letters (not in a straight line), Joqin. Hey nobody else spells it right either! He's a big boy all around lately.

S'mores (I'm thinking there's no Spanish equivalent for this!)

Our other fun end of summer/before the Carroll's leave event was an evening at the Schubert's house making s'mores over their little firepit. As you can see from the pictures, Joaquin is quite the s'mores-aholic. Can't say I disagree with him, there are few things better. Especially when the marshmellows are perfectly toasted over hot charcoal without being blackened by a campfire. Maybe not the same overall charm as camping s'mores, but definitely better for the palate.

La Piscina de Corrales

Summer is drawing to a close as Joaquin starts preschool tomorrow! We've spent the week enjoying the last our 'freedom' (if you consider two days a week, 4 hours a day of preschool to really cramp your style). As part of our fun we went to Corrales pool with Joaquin's buddies Allie (yeah for Kara in town!) and Jane. It is the most amazing pool! While it has a 'deep'end (4 to 5 feet), most of the pool is made for little kids and is roped off. The little kid section is mostly 1 to 2 feet, deepening slightly to 3 as it transitions into the area for older children. In the center of the little kid area is a playground with a tunnel slide and a tunnel for crawling through. Different spouts of water spring from various pipes; some spurting in giant arcs, some tumbling down in a big waterfall and some shooting in little fountains. This is quite possibly the coolest pool I have ever seen not associated with a waterpark, and definitely the coolest one I've seen for little children. And the kids loved it! We switched off since one mommy had to watch the sleeping Bella and that left two Mommies to corral 3 toddlers. As you can see from

the pictures, they were almost slap happy with joy. Unfortunately, this pool closes today, so this was our last hurrah. Still it was a great last pool day and a great way to play with friends.

Musica en la Mañana

So I figured I'd better blog about this before it was a week old. Nothing like procrastination. Last Saturday Joaquin and Daddy continued their normal Saturday tradition of lingering over breakfast. Daniel decided he needed some musical inspiration so he put on some Harry Connick Jr. Joaquin loved it, especially the vaguely ragtime inspired pieces. They were jamming out so Daniel decided to pull out his trumpet. This turned out to be quite the hit. Joaquin enjoyed Daddy's improv and then demanded that he be allowed to play. He also wanted to try all the mutes (combining music with his true love - anything vaguely mechanical). Turns out he can sort of make a sound, after Daniel explained that he needed to make his elephant noise into the mouthpiece. He was only slightly discouraged by the difficulty and kept trying for quite a while. As an old band geek I was very amused to see Joaquin get the same red ring above his upper lip that all the brass players used to get after a rehearsal. Of course once we got started playing with Daddy's instruments we couldn't stop with just the trumpet. We had to bring out the cymbals. This was cute, but once you add drumsticks to the cymbals Mommy's loudness threshold was definitely full. But it was a really cute moment. Joaquin has been very into classical music lately (seriously, he asks for 'mommy music' in the car. Translation: the classical music station) so this is just one more step on the geekness meter. Harry Connick Jr doesn't up his street cred very much. Poor baby.

En la Piscina (Verano 2010)

It's that time again! Swimming lessons, yeah! This is Joaquin's first year without Mommy in the pool. Wow! It was actually nice to sit and talk with the other moms, but I did miss the coolness of actually being the pool. The preschoolers use the kiddy pool most of the time, which means there was nice shade for the Mommys to enjoy, but when they had them try the big pool we were in the direct sun. Here's hoping he stays in this class next year or Mommy will broil. He did a good job mostly, he's developed quite a fear of putting his face in the water and resisted that pretty strongly. However, he did eventually try very bravely which made me very proud. He was also a little squirrely (what a shocker), but did discover that listening and doing the skills brought praise and attention from the teachers. And after that, the second week went much better. He started chatting up the teachers and telling them what a good job he was doing. It was very entertaining. It was also very entertaining to watch Joaquin with friend 'Jane'. She took lessons with us, which was fun for Joaquin and fun for Mommy since I got to hang out with her Mommy. These pictures show Joaquin and Jane playing. Jane was amazing, she learned basically every skill, turning into a serious waterbaby. They had a great time jumping around and splashing. Friday, Joaquin was super brave and went down the water slide. This really required bravery b/c it was a tunnel slide, tunnels being something else that makes Joaquin nervous. He wasn't willing to try again, but he gets points for trying. In general we had a ton of fun, and Joaquin developed a tan line you wouldn't believe. We also have another entry for our "How do you spell that" file. On the first day, Joaquin's teacher said, "Joaquin? Oh like Joaquin Phoenix? Cool!". And yet, I show you his certificate..... Juaquin. At least it's closer than his first year's 'Walkin'.

Mi-mo y La Tienda

We had a great visit from Mi-mo last weekend. She came in on Friday evening (late due to a Denver rainstorm) and stayed till Mon. morning so we had a lot of time to play. We took her to the zoo (she's been before, but it's always fun) and Joaquin got to beat the heat playing with their splash pad. It's so no fair that adults have nothing like it. Joaquin is getting too old for me to accompany him now, and I definitely would get weird looks if I ran around the zoo soaking wet. Sigh. Sometimes it's hard to be an adult. We also picnicked in their beautiful park area. The zoo is one of my favorite venues, I'm so depressed that the symphony doesn't really play concerts there anymore. It was really fun. After a fun morning, Mi-mo was really gracious and Daniel and I got to attend a wedding and reception with free, quality babysitting! Fun for both parents and Joaquin. Not sure what all Joaquin and Mi-mo did, but there was a tent involved and some pear and Manchego s'mores. Joaquin loved his tent and we left it up for several days. However, I finally tired of ducking under it to put away clothes and get him out of bed, so we took it down. Needless to say there some serious tears. You can also see the pretty new bedspread Mi-mo brought for Joaquin. Isn't it so grown-up? She also brought several new pairs of underwear (from Gymboree, my favorite!). I found that while little boy clothes are somewhat boring, little boy underwear is the cutest thing! I definitely have to watch my spending in this area. Especially little boxer briefs, so adorable! We finished up our weekend by walking down to Baskin Robbins (sp?) on Sunday night. It's a great walk since it's about 2 miles and has a hill on the way home. So you feel like you've earned your ice cream! But I do have a moral to this story - never let a little boy pick out Pop-Rock, Lime & Grape ice cream just cause it's pretty. He won't like it.

Thanks Mi-mo, we miss you!

El Chorro

Our beautiful, expensive, copper faucet that we got for super cheap on Ebay started leaking. Sigh. Daniel looked at it and couldn't open it up to fix it, so we went to Lowe's to find a new faucet. It's a little depressing how chinzy a $170 faucet is. But we bought it as the leak was getting ridiculous and we couldn't face wasting that much water. But once we got it home, Daniel simply had to try fixing it one more time. He and Joaquin had a great time pulling it out, as you can see. Daniel did finally manage to get it open, at the price of a few scratches and found it was surprisingly easy to fix. Now it works better than it ever did (turns out they put part of it together wrong in the first place) and we get to keep our beautiful faucet and pay no money! Handy husbands are sure useful. Not to mention fun for little boys. My favorite picture is the one where Joaquin is apparently holding the faucet steady while Daniel does something to it underneath; using Daniel as his footstool. Looks wildly uncomfortable, but they seemed fine.