Summer fun

We had a little technical glitch which resulted in being unable to download my camera. Namely, that the projects for our family photos was also stored in external drive that stores all of Alex's client work -- which is stored securely away from our computer. So...I had to wait for him to move those projects back onto our computer.

Nonetheless - we are back and ready to catch up on documenting the kids' fun over the last month or so.

First - this is huge - we went to Disney World! Alex and I tried as hard as we could to avoid introducing Caleb to the Mouse. But it is futile, the Mouse is too powerful. It was, however, really, really fun; absolutely exhausting, but fun.









After Disney, we made a very, very wise decision and spent 3 days in Bonita Springs Beach over on the west coast - to relax after the vacation.



Then, as if that wasn't enough fun for everyone...right when we got home, my best friend, Lourdes arrived in Miami with her girls - Sienna and Ellie. So we spent even more time at the beach with them.



Ellie and Grace in a staring contest....

We also got invited to Lourdes' dad's birthday party - we love joining in on Molina family celebrations!!!






Sienna was in desperate need of a bath - which she was not interested in taking. We used Caleb as a human bribe and he took a bath too. It was super-fast and there were still tears involved, but at least everyone was clean!


This summer is really hot, but we are exploring all the fun ways to keep cool and stay outside to make Caleb nice and tired. This is a new favorite - the Pinecrest Gardens Splash Park - it is SO fun and safe. It only costs $3!

At first, Caleb was afraid of running under the big waterfall feature - but he was in love once I helped launch him under the water. Mommy knows best.

Caleb Turns 2 - the movie

I know that Caleb's birthday was a little bit ago - but my brother, Aaron - had taken some cool videos on his 'GoPro' video camera. This is the tiny video camera that snowboarders and skateboarders mount on poles or helmets to get their cool action shots. Aaron got it for his recent snowboarding vacation.

Check out his movie - and all the accolades that he gave himself! :) Caleb loves it and watched it about 5 times in a row, he was very amused by seeing himself in the swing.

Photo-rific!

Wow! So many fun pictures to share. Since the last post we've had some fun times. Caleb turned TWO years old (woohoo for two!) He had a super-awesome, low stress birthday party (yay for mommy and low stress!) My parents, the kids and I left, literally, from the birthday party to start a drive up to Chattanooga to visit some of my awesome family up there. We had a blast. It was significantly less stressful than I imagined b/c I purchased a portable DVD player (yay for television in the car! --road trips only- ) and I brought my pump, so I could pump and feed Grace w/out stopping.

Here's the evidence of all the fun we've had...

Look! Mommy and Caleb woke up with the same bed-head!

My friend, Jenna, makes cakes (hint, hint). She made Caleb's amazing dump truck cake - it rocked. The layer-cake bottom was yellow cake w/ chocolate frosting and the dump truck was chocolate with vanilla frosting (yum!).



He liked the cake but he LOVED eating the sugar stop signs on the side of the cake.


Caleb's Abu and Aya gave him this awesome, realistic recycling truck!

You can even make it dump the cans into the truck and then you can turn a nob to make the gears take the trash into the truck - fun!


Caleb's Tia, Tio and cousins gave him a Melissa and Doug piano. It's also the perfect height for Grace!

Ok, northward in TN, we spent quality time with my Aunt Peggy.


We visited Mommy's alma mater, Bryan College. And Caleb got the obligatory picture with the Bryan Lions. Actually, the whole clan who visited Bryan that day were alumni - Mommy, Grandmother, Buddy, Aunt Peggy and their friend who came along with us. It's an awesome place and I wish that I had taken full advantage of the wonderful Biblical teachers that I had there...oh well, we live and learn.


Penguins are MUCH bigger than I anticipated! Chattanooga is the family friendliest place I've ever visited. If I didn't live in Miami, I would want to live there. We visited the aquarium - which was fish-overkill. By the end of it, I would try to excite a tired Caleb and he would say, "No, no Mommy, no fish!"


Speaking of family-friendly - check out the size of this playground! What the?!

We took the incline rail to the top of Lookout Mountain. For all intents and purposes for Caleb it was a train. Here is the view from near the top inside the car.

Here's the view inside the car...Yes, my mom is laughing - but her eyes are closed out of fear. :)

For the first time, Caleb got to play with his 2nd cousin, Dylan. He's 5 and very witty.


Dylan and his dad - my cousin, Dave. He is a complete kindie rocker. Yes, for those of us with kids - that is a new genre of music. It's like indie rock for kids. It's what super-cool rockers (Lisa Loeb, Weezer, the lead singer of the Presidents of the United States of the America, and the Verve) end up doing when they started having kids. So, Dave hosts a web-and-podcast called the Saturday Morning Cereal Bowl where he DJ's kindie rock. Check it out, it rocks (sweetly).


We also visited Julie's doughnut shop. Oh goodness. What that woman does with a doughnut is just not right...and I don't even care for doughnuts (who can eat that much sugar in the morning?) But these were simply dessert-like. Check out the labels.


And yes, she even does this...

I ate that doughnut. It was really good, very much a novelty and I couldn't eat it very often (like I can't eat bacon all that often). But I have a sneaky suspicion that if you got one of those fresh off the line that it might be like manna from heaven.

Caleb ate his first, and still only, doughnut. He ate five bites - aka the magic number. He hardly takes more than 5 bites of anything.


And finally - whew - what a post! Here are some videos!!

Grace is learning how to conduct an orchestra under the tutelage of Dylan and then Caleb.

Part 1 - Dylan instructs...



Part 2 - Caleb instructs...



'Milk': Caleb just cannot say 'milk'. It's not the mmm sound- it's just milk. Too cute.

Give Pee a Chance

We are beginning to prepare ourselves for the onset of potty training....


We will probably start something resembling a concerted effort after the kids and I get back from our visit to family in Chattanooga. We'll be heading up that way w/ my mom and dad, we'll leave on Caleb's birthday and return a week later. Then it shall begin.

Aside from the obvious - of looking for cues that he's ready, and not making it a fight - I pretty much have no idea what I'm doing. I can't help but wonder what makes me qualified to help a little boy learn to pee. I like how my mother in law did it - she went straight for teaching Alex to pee standing up. Seems logical - why not just do that the first go around?

I'm mostly nervous about this b/c I can see that the potty - like food - is one of those unique places where Caleb could figure out pretty easily that he can take complete control. This is obviously what he does w/ food - or else he just doesn't get hungry at all. But I believe it's the former - he can be in control over eating and not eating. Just like peeing, pooping - in the potty or not. Sigh.


The kiddos at play...

Gracie-Grace all dressed up and 'at the races.' We went to Gulfstream race track w/ Alex's family last weekend. Notice the appearance of two teeth!


Grace and Isabella, Alex's beautiful niece!


We didn't even coordinate those outfits - but they look awesome together! By the way, the onesie Grace is wearing is an awesome custom design from my friend Jackie (see previous post about fabulous Yo Gabba Gabba party). She knits these awesome appliques and sews them to onesies. I had ordered it for Coraline and now it's been handed down to Grace. Jackie is so talented. I tried to find her shop on Etsy.com but she may not be doing that anymore....I'll keep you posted if she is still on there.

odds and ends

We are FAST approaching two wonderful years of having Caleb in our lives! My parents gave him his birthday gift early - a super cool push bike, called a Y-bike. It's designed to build a lot of balance and coordination. They also got him a nifty helmet which he loves as well!


We weren't sure how much ownership Caleb had taken of his new bike until we tried to give Grace a ride - and he quickly claimed rightful ownership.


Alex has had a few weekends off, and we've been loving some actual weekend down-time, just being able to hang out around the house. Here's a super-rare picture of Pete enjoying some cuddling time.



What a fun lazy time! Look as Grace reaches oh-so-lovingly for daddy! awww....


Just kidding! She is really practicing her masterful eye-gouge technique!


Caleb working the mechanics of his 'camera' - it doesn't do anything at all, but he likes it.



Like superman, Caleb has super-vision....he is using it here...


We went to our friend Nina Sophia's awesome 2-year birthday party! Sophie's parents were in our child birth class that we took in preparation for Caleb's birth. They are awesome! Sophie's mom is unbelievably creative and artistic and manages to hand-make the Yo Gabba Gabba themed party decorations, cake and individually hand-painted invites. And did I mention that she has an 12-week old baby too? Sheesh, she makes us all look bad!





Caleb likes the feeling of the wind in his hair - ride on!