El Dieciséis de Septiembre

So I do realize that we are not yet in September, however this was Joaquin's Independence Day. (Well actually Thursday was) Whilst I am obviously biased in favor of my wonderful son and his amazingness, I will be the first to say that he is not mature for his age. His focusing abilities are not stellar, even for a child of three and he has never been one to try and push the boundaries of what he can do. For example, the child stays in his big boy bed until we get him out, and has since he first got it at age two. However, recently Joaquin has been branching out as far as physical experimentation goes. I've been encouraging that since I want him to be a little less sadly klutzy than my family. But Thursday was a little scary since he decided to be independent in all sorts of ways. We came home close to lunch time and I was in my room trying to fold some clothes before feeding him and he decided I was taking too long. He went to the fridge, pulled out a tupperware of Spaghettios (I refuse to apologize for feeding him Spaghettios - love 'em myself) and then pulled a chair over to the counter. I was only alerted to his actions when I heard the microwave door open and then close. There was a beep and then he was apparently stymied. I went in to 'help' him. Apparently he had opened the fridge, saw the Spaghettios and decided they would make a good lunch. Not sure whether to punish him or reward him, I simply told him that he should ask me for help next time and zapped the Spaghettios. Then at naptime he talked to himself for two hours and at two hours (almost to the dot) he said, "Mommy I awake" and came out of his room to find me. Hmmm.... I also didn't get mad at this, b/c technically if he hasn't fallen asleep after two hours he's free and I go get him. But how he knew time was up I'll never know. Lucky guess? That evening we went to Home Depot looking for a new kitchen faucet. While Daniel and I were discussing, he went around a corner and then disappeared. We quickly split up and ran up and down aisles calling him name in urgent tones. Daniel found him and when I picked him up to kiss him and yell at him he told me, "I was just looking." Cause that makes me feel better! Not sure about this sudden big boy behavior, we'll see where it breaks out next.

Riegue Resbaladero

Another day, another playdate. No seriously, the heat has just been so extreme that plans that include outside activities like park time and zoo time just have to be jettisoned (at least by this family. I'm not a fan of heat and Joaquin likes it even less.) The temperature has dropped, but the humidity is still awful so we spend most time inside or doing water activities! So this particular day we spent with Joaquin's buddy 'Stephen' and his mommy. He has a super cool pool with a inflatable slide. By plugging it into the hose you even get spray on the slide. So you get the little raft and slide on down, face first. Fabulous! I was actually so sad I was too big for this particular pool, it looked like a ton of fun. (It must have been, look at Joaquin's face!)

VBS 2010

So I apologize as this is a post without pictures. Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures of Vacation Bible School b/c I was too busy working. And I worked hard since I told the biblestory to everyone of the 200 children that attended. Because I was working, Joaquin got to attend the preschoolers class (since they're so much work, we only have preschool class for the children of workers). They've really developed it in the last couple of years, so the preschoolers get to do basically everything the older kids do. They had craft time, music time, snack time, game time and story time. Joaquin loved it, he especially got into the craft time. The day they made birdfeeders he wasn't finished when they had to move on, so in order to avoid a fit, Grandma stayed with him and helped him finish. Sometimes he's so slap-dash and sometimes, when he thinks something is cool, he is ridiculously persnickety. My favorite VBS story comes from music time. Stacy came to me after VBS on Tuesday and asked me, "What song is all around the neighborhood?" Apparently Joaquin had requested it and sang it himself when nobody knew what it was. However his version left them still confused as to what it was. Some judicous questioning on my part the next evening elicited it. It's apparently his favorite verse of "This Little Light of Mine." "All Around the Neighborhood, I'm gonna let it shine," etc. Anyway, the week ended with a little program for the parents, where the kids sang the songs they learned. The preschoolers were supposed to sing one song with the big kids. Joaquin sat on the steps very nicely and jumped up when asked. When the singing started he looked at the big kids, then started slowly backing up until he touched the risers and hopped up. He stood next to the big kids through the whole song, neither singing or doing the motions. Then he got down and came to sit with me through the rest of program. When I asked him later why he didn't sing he said, "Because I didn't know it. I'm too little to know songs with that many words that aren't Jesus Loves Me." Totally cracked me up!

El Arco Iris

Joaquin has what my brother has deemed, subversive wit. Everything is funny if you say the opposite. Also it's fun to shock and ask questions you know don't make sense, ex: "Will I grow up to be a girl?". Also included in this is the reluctance to answer questions or to perform on command. I find it incredibly aggravating. It can make Joaquin quite the annoying child to be around, because you never can predict if he'll be the charming version of himself or decided to be 'funny'. However, having said that, here's a few Joaquin stories where he was sincere and therefore absolutely the sweetest thing. A few weeks ago (before this blasted heat wave!) we had a rainstorm right as we were driving up Paseo to get Daddy's haircut. The rain cleared up enough to allow a rainbow - a full double rainbow with a partial third rainbow on the outside. It was absolutely incredible and beautiful. Joaquin loved it! He kept talking about it and how pretty it was - and wanted to get out in the rain and see it better. He was just obviously blown away by it and it was so sweet. Last week we had vacation bible school at church (that's a whole other post in and of itself). During VBS the children discovered a nest in one of the trees in our courtyard, with some baby birds in it. Joaquin was enraptured. He wanted to look at them constantly and kept telling me how beautiful they were. (Look at my little nature boy.) Finally, last weekend our neighbors had a garage sale. This turned out to be a bonanza for Joaquin as they have three boys, the youngest of whom is 7 or 8. We bought two tubs of Duplos and a set of Marble Works (in the picture) for 3 dollars. Woo-hoo! We bought the Marble Works b/c Joaquin charmed our neighbor by explaining to her that a specific piece was a gear and would turn, etc. After that she insisted we needed them. :) So fortunately he has moments of charm where he reveals the nice sweet side of his personality.

Una Noche con Tio Matty

So as requested by Rachel, here is a picture of the finished product. It looks very nice and works just like a bed works. :) We're trying to decide if Daniel should make the dresser or the loft bed and which part we should buy. Currently voting for the loft bed. A dresser sounds wildly complicated to make. Still, regardless of how much effort your father put into making it, a bed is still just a place for playing. Here is Joaquin wrestling with Uncle Matty. Obviously in this picture he is standing on Uncle Matty, but he had just finished 'pinning' him. This week Albuquerque has been wretchedly hot and humid (for ABQ) and it's been pretty miserable outside and in. Because of our upducts our house has been relatively comfortable, but my brother was sweltering at my parents where both swamp coolers were struggling to bring it below eighty. So he came over to our house for the evening. It worked out well for Joaquin and I as Daniel had to be in Livermore again for a few days. Joaquin had a boy to play with (something he really wants at all times, I'm merely a stopgap) and I had another adult to talk to. Matthew was also

helpful at bathtime, here he is wearing his 'bubble hat'. I like this picture of Matthew since you can tell he's cracking up, but hopefully he's handsome enough in it. I'm not allowed to post pictures he looks ugly in. Actors, honestly. :) And finally here's a picture of new daredevil Joaquin. He's been showing a somewhat delayed sense of craziness lately, trying to do things that scare me. Not sure where this recent bravery comes from - he's always been such a cautious kid. This is his new favorite thing - standing on the sides of the bathtub, supporting himself with the wall. I only let him do it a few times, since it worries me, but I hate to spoil his daring. He so rarely pushes the envelope physically that I like to encourage him when he does. I just spot him very nervously! (Photo editing done for obvious reasons!)

Perritos

Our neighbors recently took in a stray dog. She's quite cute and looks like mostly pomeranian. And she's nice enough that they've decided to keep her. I have some proprietary feelings towards her since I found her before the Gallegos did and so I was very excited when her owner wasn't found and they decided to keep her. She was a great dog, but started peeing in random places. The vet couldn't understand it, but she also started to get fat. Hmmm.... one day they find her under the bed having puppies. They are sooooooooooo cute! So here is Joaquin getting to meet them, very closely supervised.

La Cama Negra

So, big news! The bed is up! Here are Joaquin and Daddy hammering in the slidey feet on the headboard. We took advantage of the moment to clear out most of his room and steam clean the carpet (totally necessary). The perk of this, at least from Joaquin's point of view is that his mattress was placed in the hallway. A mattress placed in the hallway can fall down, allowing you to jump on it and play the piano at the same time! Oh joy, oh bliss. It was pretty entertaining to watch, and despite the fact that he was probably damaging his mattress, Mommy elected to take pictures instead of stopping him.