say cheese

E knew he was cute when he put on the play glasses his MeMaw brought for dress up. He sat quietly and looked at the camera so I could snap this priceless shot.

spring

finger licking good

Yesterday E got up early before his sister.


He has some rough spots during the past two weeks but considering his limited vocabulary to express himself and inability to process this confusing situation it's pretty much understandable. I've been teaching him the signs for "more" and "please" to try to help our communication during meal times. But so far it has been mostly me doing the signing.

We have bonded and I believe he even gave me a kiss the other night after putting on his jammies. T announced after being here 4 days that I was her grandma and although it was a shock to my anti-aging mindset I've accepted the title along with the crop of gray streaks that has been determined to grace my head these days. I've bounced my back tired walking E to sleep twice each day but it seems a small price to pay for falling asleep peacefully rather than screaming oneself unconscious.

The one thing that is sure to make this round-one happy is food.

While we shared a few moments together as the rooster crowed the day up I took advantage of the quiet and the morning sun to document breakfast.


After he initiated getting into the booster seat I started him on some apple juice while I sliced a benana (T's pronunciation).



We finished up the meal with a round of strawberry granola in vanilla yogurt . E prefers to man the utensils himself so sticky things like yogurt work better than items that fall out of the spoon when it is turned upside down.

hop to it

I taught T how to play "hopstock" today.

horse ride mexican style

Our day in Escanada, Mexico was cool and overcast. We debated over the various "excursions" listed on the brochure offered by the cruse line but I hadn't been impressed with the reviews I read online so in the end decided to find our way into town and check things out ourselves.

As I went through security a second time for the street map we forgot to pick up Jay had an interesting conversation with one of the security persons located on the dock. He suggested we ride the 3 dollar shuttle into town rather than walk. This seemed like a good idea to me as I didn't want to tire my feet just getting to the fun. The decision to take the bus was one of our better idea as our "tour guide" on the short journey gave us the sales pitch for the Mexican version of the excursions for the half price the curse line offered. We decided the horse ride along the beach sounded like a fun adventure. Not only did we pay half price but they also took us to two of the other excursion destinations as well as serving us lunch.

Of course the discount Mexican version of the horse ride was bound to have some interesting elements ....like creative horse tack. I didn't get a photo but Jay later told me one of his stirrups was made from a car seat belt.


We rode through a field of pretty wild flowers and then past an interesting roadside second-hand store/campsite type thing on our way to the beach.


Neither of us had ever ridden a horse on the beach before. It was a nice was you enjoy the water on a chilly day.




Thank you Mexican horse for a nice ride on the beach.

water play

Wednesday we went to the dollar store for sand pails in an attempt to curb the need to throw the gravel.

But it got kind of hot in the sun so...

On Thursday we went to the 99 cent store and bought paint brushes for "paint water".

On Friday morning when the temps began to climb we had our first try with the buckets and the brushes.



T had a lovely time painting lines on the pavement. Her favorite is spin around in a circle while painting and then view the resulting mark.



For 15 month old E throwing the water off the brush was his initial strategy but it wasn't long before he figured out a more effective way to get the water out of the bucket so he could move on to exploring other things.

This post dedicated to my mom for her wonderful paint with water strategy.
Just this morning before I was fully awake I caught myself thinking,
I need to call mom and talk to her today.

go fly a kite

Living in the desert can make outdoor play challenging. The hot sun without shade trees, slippery gravel yard instead of green grass, and lots of plants with needles do not add up to a kid-friendly environment. But living on a quite dead end street with lots of space to roam beats city apartment play scraped knees and all. We're on a learning curve....long pants, regardless of the temperature, provide a layer of protection from inevitable gravel-induced wipe outs. And of course there is always water play....but that's another post.