The age of technology

Supervising

Peter enjoys supervising the neighbor's back yard remodel every day.

Humpty Dumpty

Big boy bed and room

A couple months ago, we got you a big boy twin size bed because you weren't sleeping in the crib.  You would get out but then couldn't get back in.  Today, we freshend up your room with this ultra gentleman's study map, putting you on the fast track to manhood.

Fourth of July & retro trunks

We invited ourselves to Abuelos' house for the Fourth of July, mostly to escape the smokey air from the Alpine Fire by our house.  They provided the pool, we provided the hamburgers and corn.  Here you are sporting your new but old-school, retro swim trunks made by mom.

Vacation '12

We haven't been on vacation since I was pregnant with you. The thought of going on a vacation seemed like so much work to me, I couldn't really think of it for very long. But you're two now, and we really needed to get away. Get away somewhere new, maybe have a couple moments to ourselves. So I committed to all the work it would take to prepare to go on a vacation with three small children and most of all with you.

To sum it up, I would say you acted like a drunken midget the whole time. You were rude, disrespectful, annoying, you fell over a lot, you walked off a lot, you were too loud, stayed up late and your behavior was generally irreverent. Of course, this means you had the time of your life. Here are some highlights of your first vacation experience.

I bought you a tiny stroller to make our travelling life easier.  The damn wheels wouldn't roll under your weight and I had to drag you and the luggage through the airport.  Please remember to thank me for this one day.

Airplane behavior -- 8 out of 10.  No crying, no screaming, no demaning for 99% of the flying time.  There was some annoying kicking of the seat in front of you, a couple "I dropped my bear between my seat and the airplane", and maybe one "I want food right now, this very minute".  Overall, excellent flyer though.

Attempting to sleep like a civilized human being with your siblings in a queen size bed - 0.

Not yet a big fan of museums nor of Ancient China.

I like this.  I like to run wherever I may.  I like to grab on to unsuspecting strangers.

Hmm, those look so cuddly.

OK, I'll tolerate this heat and interruption of my daily nap for a few more minutes.

Big boy chairs, real cups and straws.  I like this.

I love my sister.  Isn't she like a second mom?

I don't know why all these people look so bored at this mustering meeting on the ship. 
I love grabbing people when they least expect it.  It's so funny!

Wow, I can see everything from this elevator.

Oh, you're going to take a picture.  Here, let me give you my best picture face.

Yeah, it's super isn't it.

OK, OK.  I'll sleep with the other kids as long as I can sleep on the foot of the bed facing the wrong way.

This is a very interesting bus ride.  It's like I have my own private view of it.

This place sucks.  I'm sick and tired of being here and I just got here. 
Sofia keeps going on about how they are going to sacrifice me like the other babies and throw me in the river.

Duh.  I just wanted to take a nap in this hellish heat.  I'm much better now.

I wish I could go in there.

Cool.  I'm just like the other kids.  I can do this thing.

I'm having a lot of thoughts here.  I think I might like to go in there. 
I think maybe they might let me this time.  There's other kids in there. 
I'm wearing a swimming suit, I think.  I don't really know what these shoes are about. 
But I'm almost sure I can figure out a way to just get in there.

Would you like a fine confectionary cheerio, monsieur?

To hell with table manners!

I'm glad we reserved the whole island to ourselves.  Let's order some drinks, Marcelo.

Gosh darn it! I drank too much again and someone painted my face!

I think I'm still inebriviated even the next morning. 
Wait, this is how I've been on the whole vacation!!!  Ha ha ha ha.

I am done.  I don't care how far you walk away from me.  I'm going my own way.

Nap time

After his two year birthday, Peter reached a number of milestones including but not limited to biting leaving a full impression and climbing out of the crib (successfully without landing on his head). The past few weeks have not been very fun trying to get him to stay in the crib for naps and at night time. He does understand that he's supposed to stay in his room, and at first, he would open the door shyly and look out. If he happened to see my stern eyes looking back at him, he would dash back in and close the door. Now, he's gotten a bit confident. In fact yesterday, taking advantage of the fact that I'm laid up in bed with strep throat and thought I'd take a little rest while the kids were in Quiet Time, he snuck all the way down to the kitchen, climbed on the counter and stole the rock candy I got as a guest gift at the Museum of Natural History Gala. Despite my old age and feeble state of being, my sense of hearing is quiet keen. I knew exactly what he was up to just by the sound of it. So I was waiting for him as he came back up the stairs. Sadly, the rock candy had to go in the toilet (which was rather confusing for Marcelo later when he got up to go pee).

Today, I had better luck. Only one attempt to come out of the room. I was able to squelch it merely with my voice from downstairs, "Go back in your room." When I went to check on the quietness a half an hour later. I found him like this. I guess, I'll take whatever I can get.

"cracker"

So currently you say no more than three or four words regularly: mom, dada, yay, and caca. Your first real word was something like, "nanana", for banana but you lost that word when you kept growing new neurons I guess. Now, we've been struggling to get you to say two sounds together, like "u" and "p". You'll say the sounds separately but not together to form the word "up". There's only a handful of consonant sounds that you are willing to make and vowels are even harder. Whenever we try to get you to repeat a new sound, you get kind of nervous and clench your mouth and neck muscles. It's a mystery to me and the therapist as to why you do this. It's especially perplexing to figure out what the difficulty is in getting the words to come out because it's clear that there is nothing wrong with your hearing or comprehension of words.

Well today you were making your usual closed mouth sounds indicating you wanted something from the kitchen which we decerned was a cracker. I asked you to say cracker, but of course you don't say cracker, so I meant for you to sign cracker with your hands which you do know. That's all I was expecting and then from nowhere --"cracker"!

What?! You can't even say "up" but out of no where you come out with "cracker"! Ok, it did sound kind of like a non-human parrot voice, but you said it!

Stunt driving

Sofia shows the broken front end of the car.  Marcelo seems quite delighted by the exciting event that just occured .... probably because he's a boy.  Peter doesn't understand why we need to take a picture of this.

Just when I thought you knew better than to drive your toy push car down the stairs, your boy brain decides you need to test out this scenario for yourself. God forbid you just take my word for it, that this is NOT a good idea. I am, after all, just a woman. So apparently you creeped up to the edge and of course eventually the car's front wheels succumbed to the edge. As the car starts to go down, you decide to bail off the side of the car which results in a tumbling cycle involving you and the car all the way down the stairs. I did try to save you but of course I was useless running behind you. As I saw you emerge from the wreckage, I cringed in expectation of the damage, broken bones, nose bleed, gashes to the head, bloody teeth hanging out. But there was nothing. You climbed up to my lap and cried with fear but that was it. It's a good thing kids really are made of plastic!

You didn't stop on this landing, you fell all the way to the bottom.

I fought the law, and ...

Maybe this new anarchy t-shirt was not such a good idea --Kiri.

Peter! I told you to stop messing with the lemon tree. Don't face-butt the ceramic pot anymore. OK!