Halloween 2011

 So December first is a good time for a Halloween blog, right?  I've officially become a horrible blogger lately.  And I have no real excuse now that I'm down to only one child.  Well, with an attempt to make amends, here is Joaquin's Halloween blog.  He decided he wanted to be a robot.  We had been planning a Curious George costume with Daddy as the man with the yellow hat, but Joaquin changed his mind.  He wanted to be a robot like when George dressed up like a robot.  Go figure.  While I made up a body (of pizza cartons and tinfoil) for him to wear at AWANA, the costume really took off when Daddy got a hold of it.  He fixed it very solidly with foil tape, jazzed up the painted egg carton buttons with a outside coat of gold paint and created a helmet.  For both Daddy and Joaquin it was very important that he could see out but that no one else could see his face.  The spray-painted a screen gold to reflect light and therefore people's glances.  This was placed in a box covered with tinfoil and attached to the body.  Then they added LED push on lights and dry hose arms.  I think they had more fun actually making the costume then actually trick or treating!  But isn't that the point of making your own costume?  On Halloween they sallied forth to show off their craftmanship (I stayed home sporting my pregnant mommy passing out candy costume) and were a great hit around the neighborhood.  After returning with an already obscene amount of candy, we continued our last tradition of avoiding the more grown-up trick or treaters by turning off our lights and driving to our various nearby friends and relatives.  Aunty Boo-boo got a visit as well as the Sturdys, Chelsea and Grandma & Grandpa.  Everyone was suitably impressed. :)  Joaquin wanted to surprise Grandpa who had never seen any part of his costume, so Daniel and I had to hide behind my parent's courtyard wall while Joaquin rang the doorbell solo (after first explaining to some confused and suspicious neighbors).  Then he marched inside without saying a word, which of course tipped Grandpa off as to the identity of this particular robot.  The last photograph is Daniel's favorite since he feels we could make a lot of money by selling it to the National Enquirer.  "The Eagle has landed"  One Headley tip for future Halloween fun, the push-on LED lights turned out to be very helpful as flashlights for the whole family, I would definitely recommend their usage on any costume as a convenience and safety measure.

Adios Jamie

We recently took our foster daughter Jamie to live with her grandparents.   It was definitely a rough weekend, but made better by a visit to the Carrolls in Phoenix.  I think that I can safely say that although we all miss her (including Joaquin) we are glad she's with them, and recovering, slowly.  When we got to Phoenix, the Carrolls had planned for us to accompany them to a "trunk & treat" at a friend's church.  Admittedly it was a week early, but still fun.  We didn't have any costumes so we borrowed the Carroll's from last year - The Incredibles!  We looked great despite the fact that Joaquin had no idea who we were and I was a pregnant Elasti-girl.  We played little kid fair games and Joaquin tried bobbing for apples, much harder than it looks apparently.  So after accumulating too much candy we went home to rest up for our next adventure.  Back to Schnepf farms for their pumpkin patch festival.  We rode some rides for children and Daddy and Joaquin rode a roller coaster (that's the picture with the rather unnerved Joaquin).  To recover we visited the petting zoo and Joaquin showed Daddy the young goats that was convinced were the older version of his ugly goats from February.  We had a great time and it definitely took our minds off of everything.  However I could tell Joaquin was missing Jamie since he got along with Allie and Bella extremely well.  Sunday morning they spent like 3 hours just hanging out and watching TV, etc. while the adults lolligagged getting ready and chatting.  And they didn't try to beat each other up or start some screaming fest.  SERIOUSLY!  That never happens, Joaquin must have needed some girl love right then.  Thanks Carrolls.



Corral de Calabazas

It must be said that Heather is pretty good at research.  In general, if she proposes something she's thoroughly looked into times, locations and necessary equipment.  Quite convenient really.  Especially in this instance as she found a cute little Pumpkin Patch for free in a vacant lot on the west side of town.  It was really small and wouldn't entertain big children for very long, but considering it was free, we felt comfortable enjoying ourselves and then leaving.  They had an amazing variety of pumpkins and gourds, which fortunately Joaquin found just as intriguing as I did because I spent a lot of time looking at them and wanted to buy some to bring home.  He thought that was a great idea and even helped me pick them out.  So I could say it was for my son!  They had a corn maze (really some metal fencing put in a maze with corn stalks woven through it) which Joaquin was very excited about.  We (meaning Aunty Boo-boo, Mommy and Uncle Matty) let him lead us around and he promptly brought us out again with very few wrong turns.  Joaquin really is very good at mazes, paper or apparently 3-D.  They also had these little troughs attached to old-fashioned water pumps were you could do rubber ducky races.  Joaquin LOVED this.  Seriously, after he beat Uncle Matty like a gazillion times I had a tough time pulling him away from it.  He developed a technique of a giant pump right at the beginning to jump start and then some frantic pumping to finish.  My favorite was watching him and Uncle Matty attempt to rope a steer dummy.  As Matthew would be the first to admit, despite his two turns as a stage cowboy, his roping skills are abysmal.  Joaquin's are likewise untrained but much more zealous.  They didn't hardly come close, but they did entertain mommy.  We then drove around on the little tractor trikes (or rather Joaquin did) and admired a variety of animals.  I liked the goats who were climbing around the top of the little structure made for them, but Joaquin was fascinated by the turkeys.  Admittedly turkeys are interesting and they had an older male with the full plummage, snood and wattle.  He was definitely something to see.  Their plummage isn't as colorful as a peacock, but it is totally gorgeous.  Finally we paid for our swan gourd and dragon toe squash (seriously!  that's the name) and went home.  Fun and it got me out of a long drive to the McCall pumpkin patch that is the normal October destination for Albuquerqueans.  Good job Boo-boo! 

Célula

Oh the magic of a boy and his bugs.   Apparently Daniel talked a bit about Joaquin and his enjoyment of his praying mantis Fast Catcher because when a coworker saw another praying mantis outside the trailer he caught it for Joaquin.  Daniel faithfully brought it home and we managed to keep this one alive for another few weeks before she laid an egg sac and then died.  Joaquin named her Cell because that's what she was made of.  I feel that this name would apply just as well to a whole slew of living creatures, but hey!  Joaquin had a great time watching her catch and eat crickets (especially since she was a much more ferocious hunter than Fast Catcher and she always ate head first) and Daniel got these rather cool pics.  Joaquin handled her passing very well, especially since after she laid her egg sac we warned him it might be imminent.  We have plans to release the praying mantis nymphs (they hatch after winter apparently) in grandma's garden since they'll be helpful eating pests.  (We decided on grandma's garden since I asked Joaquin who had a beautiful garden that might need them and he thought of grandma's) Fortunately we seem to be developing an interest in snakes recently since Mommy is tired of reading books about bugs!

Los Thunderbirds

So realistically I shouldn't be the one writing this blog since I wasn't there, but here's some pics of Daniel and Joaquin at the air show!  The Thunderbirds came to Albuquerque and since Mommy was occupied at a little shower for Eliana the boys decided to be manly.  They had a great time.  They got to see a Stealth Bomber fairly close and an Osprey and all sorts of stuff.  Then of course there was also the Thunderbirds themselves.  I saw them a bunch when I was a little girl (part of an Air Force brat childhood I guess) so I was a little emotional about Joaquin watching them too.  Oddly enough Joaquin always includes how after they parked they got to ride on a school bus (apparently the base was PACKED, so there was a lot of organization to keep things moving).  This bodes well for his first year at school.  He was also full of facts about the rescue helicopter he saw and what it did.  Nice father son time.

Los Primos, Octubre 2011

 I'm ashamed to admit that although we went to the Balloon Fiesta this year and had a lovely time, we forgot the camera.  Seriously.  Can I write a blog about a child in Abq and not have a blog about the Balloon Fiesta in Oct?  Is that legal?  What made it even more fun was that Jonah was in town!  We saw him at the Balloon Fiesta and then he and Isaac came over for a play date along with Allie and Bella.  It was sheer craziness.  I thought Kara, Rachel and I could talk through anything, but with each of us balancing two children is was definitely nutty.  We actually had a great time photographing all the kids together as you can see.  Even I (the non-photographer) got pictures with everyone actually looking the same directions.  And Joaquin's faces are fantastic (especially during the silly picture).  The picture of Joaquin and Jonah playing tag around my coffee table is a little blurry, but they got up an impressive rate of speed for the limited space.  My favorite activity was actually all the boys playing the piano.  Jonah started by just playing a few notes and then singing "Row, row, row your boat".  It was actually super cute, but once Joaquin and Isaac got in on the action it became mostly banging on the keys.  Joaquin told me, "we sound like a tornado, we sound like a thunderstorm!"  Not an inaccurate description really.  It was especially adorable to see Bella and Isaac interact as well.  Just because they aren't our personality-loaded firstborns doesn't mean their personalities aren't just as well-formed.  I look forward to many more years of getting to know these cuties.

La Piña Que No Era Ratón

I unfortunately don't have a picture for this particular post.  But this story is too good to be forgotten for lack of photographic evidence.  So it starts with a thunderstorm early last Wednesday morning.  Joaquin was woken up and he came into our room complaining of a bright light.  I told him it was lightning and we snuggled until the brief storm ended and Joaquin waltzed happily back to his room all by himself.  Congratulating myself on a good mommy moment where everyone was happy and I didn't have to get up, I rolled over and went back to sleep.  A few moments later I hear, "Mommy, mommy!"  Daniel nicely got up and went to shush Joaquin before he woke Jamie.  I relax and then I hear, "Bethany, Bethany".  So I get up and walk to Joaquin's room.  Joaquin is huddled on his bed and Daniel is leaning over something on the floor.  "Get a cup" he says, so I get my glass cup from my nightstand.  No he needs a plastic cup.  Finally I bring a cup he's satisfied with and he slams it over a dark shape on the floor.  Then he asks for his glasses (the order of this is important).  We close the door and turn on the light.  Apparently when Daniel came in Joaquin had seen something moving and they thought it was a mouse.  Joaquin was even standing on his bed pointing in a classic avoid the mouse pose.  So we flipped the cup over and discover a....... pinecone.