Piensa

Do you remember 'Goodnight Moon'? Well we read it to Joaquin frequently and the first line says, "In the great green room there was a telephone and a red balloon...." Yesterday after a trip to Trader Joe's Joaquin took his green TJ's balloon into his room and said, "In the brown brown room there was a green balloon!" Mommy had to sit down she was laughing so hard. Clever, huh?

This is picture is one Joaquin drew yesterday for Jonah. (Rachel this is coming in the mail along with Jonah's towel.) First he drew the black jagged lines on the bottom and told me he was writing "M" for mommy. We like to make J's for Joaquin, D's for Daddy and M's for Mommy. (Yes, I realize my name actually starts with B, but I didn't want him to confuse the sounds.) However this is important b/c this is his first time attempting to form them on his own. It's a really long m, but still! Then he made a zigzag with every color on top and told me they were a rainbow. Finally he took some more brown and black and scribbled on top of the rainbow. Then he informed me that these were stormclouds and they make noise. I asked him the name of the noise just for fun and he said, "Thumpter!" I'm so excited that he's starting to really make pictures now. It's an important evolution from making scribbles and then making up something they look like (usually a snake) which was his modus operandi up till now.

Creciendo

These goofy pictures are what you get if you attempt to pose a two-year old by their measuring chart to memorialize them reaching 3 feet. Actually I measured him over 3 feet and Daniel measured him slightly under, but we're calling it 3 (It's really difficult to tell b/c he wiggles and attempts to look up at the chart). Whatever way you look at it, he's still grown at least an 1/8 of an inch since July. No wonder he was eating everything in sight! But here we are getting taller every minute!

Pintor

We recently found some cheap finger paints at Target and yesterday Joaquin and I decided to use them. It is no exaggeration to say that he loved it. Once he discovered he could put his whole hand in the little jar and slop a bunch of paint on the paper there was no turning back. I think he just liked the feel of the paint squishing beneath his fingers. He kept smearing it around and saying 'cool'. You can even see his lips forming the word in this picture. However, it quickly became an incredible mess. I'm not sure I can adequately do it justice, hopefully these pictures help. We started out with three full pots; red, yellow and pink. This is what they looked like when Joaquin was finished. That's also what the table and his paper looked like. Apparently when you mix red, pink, and yellow together really, really well a deep reddish orange is what you get - everywhere. And this is what Joaquin looked like after his exertions (I give myself major props for the massive paint shirt). So in case any of you need them, here are some rules I formulated for finger painting with two-year olds.

1. Never put out the paint pot - always put a pile of paint (yes finger paint has a very sticky, solidy texture) on a paper plate.

2. Always, always wear a paint shirt and nothing else. Everything not covered by the paint shirt will be painted, and even parts that were might be (it's a August miracle!)

3. Never do this activity over a non-tile or linoleum floor.

4. Do not let the child down on their own for any period of time before clean-up occurs! In fact, don't even let the child attempt to climb down from the chair, pick them up!

5. Do not attempt unless you have a backyard and a hose. There is no other possible means of clean-up that will result in actual clean-up.

6. Don't worry, finger paint washes off tables, chairs, cabinets, door frames and curtains. (And amazingly enough the washcloth used to clean the above surfaces).

Rasura

This is Joaquin pretending to shave like Daddy (with Daddy's beard trimmer turned on and perilously close to his hair). They were very cute. Joaquin watched Daniel grooming and decided to give it a try. He's even holding the modified box top Daniel always uses as a shield to keep little hairs from getting in the sink. We're teaching him good hygiene young. :) And one little Joaquin moment: whenever we fly we sing the Air Force anthem. Sometimes we sing the tune and sometimes we sing as many of the words as mommy remembers. It actually goes, "Up in the air, into the wild blue yonder, up in the air, up into the sky." (My dad always used to make up silly words after that so I have no clue how the rest of it goes.) Joaquin can sing the tune relatively well, but this is version of the words, "Why you wonder up in the air, (pause) in the sky?" I guess he has some questions for the Air Force Pilots

Toalla Poncho

While at swimming lessons, I saw a child wearing a towel poncho and totally loved the idea of it. I mean how convenient? A towel and a wrap in one! Plus they always come out of the water so chilly and this warms them up without having to strip down. So this is my interpretation. Notice I made it a little big in the somewhat ill-advised hope that we can use it again next year. (Like anything made by my questionable seamistry will last that long!) I made one for Joaquin and one for Jonah and one for Allie in my creative storm. Notice Joaquin's is green (for Joaquin!) and I put a little dump truck decal on to make it special.

Las Fotos

Before Allie left, Kara and I had fun doing a photoshoot of the cuties dressed in semi-matching outfits. Are we ridiculous or what? So here's a blog devoted (mostly) to pictures.

Jumping shoots are exponentially harder the more people involved. Especially if two of them are small. It's a lot easier with just the mommies!

Oh how sweet, but hey look we can jump down from this too!

These two pictures are actually very indicative of their personalities. As you can see from Allie's shot we actually shot until it was quite dark and most of the pictures are wildly entertaining (at least to a mother). I have to say it's sad how good both of them are about pictures, they've both been photographed within an inch of their lives.

Camión de Volteo (?)

Obviously, the bigger the dump truck toy the more fun it is. We had a great time pushing these around the Schuberts back yard. Unfortunately toys are never as fun in your own yard. Still Caleb loved it in the sandbox yesterday. I guess I can count that as a win.