Taking control

Friends

Rachel has entered the "Oh no, I'm not letting you feed me" stage of eating. She'll grab ahold of the spoon and get incredibly angry if you persist in trying to feed her - she wants to feed herself.

Which is messy. Very messy. This is lasagna for dinner. Breakfast was blueberry yogurt all over her head. We learned some tricks with Daniel, though. Anything served on a grown-up utensil, or from a grown-up plate still gets eaten.

Daniel's favorite book these days is "the Gruffalo" which is a great little story about a clever mouse. Amazon says it's for reading agest 4-8, but it's just about right for him these days. Daniel's memory is incredible, it just is. He has entire passages of this book memorized. If you're reading it to him, you can stop at any point, give him a little nudge, and he'll give you the next sentence or two. The same is true of his other current favorite; Dr. Seuss' "Green Eggs and Ham". It's not just memory, though - he understands the story too, and can answer questions about it.

For President's day (Daniel thought it was "presents day" and was looking for the mailman), we went to the Children's museum along with every other family in town. Good fun. Daniel was a fireman, as he always is.

And since I didn't wait two weeks to provide an update, that's about it for now.
Love, R.E.A.D

¡Hola Amigos!

Hola!

Last week, we went on a super-secret vacation to Mazatlan, Mexico. Anida arranged the whole thing, and until the day before, Eric knew we were going "somewhere" but not where. Where the heck is Mazatlan?


It's time to confess... In the past we might have made fun of "package tours" or "all-inclusive resorts", but truth be told, it was the perfect solution for us right now. The kids had a great time playing at the beach, in the pool and in the little play area by the pool. Daniel loved being able to choose his meals from the buffet, and it was a relaxing vacation. D's vocabulary now includes "Gracias" and "Por Favor".

We only left the hotel area on a couple of occasions. Once to go to the city aquarium where Daniel was enthralled by the big sea turtle and the seal "spectacular" show. We also took a city tour by trolley. Midway through the tour, there was a cliff diver who jumped off a 45-foot cliff into the sea, and for the rest of the trip, Daniel wanted to be a "cleef diver" and fling himself into the pool.

It doesn't matter how many pink clothes Rachel wears - because her hair is short, people assume she's a boy. Someone asked "Why do you cut her hair like that?" when told she was a girl. Oh well, it's growing in. Rachel's big, beautiful blue eyes got everyone's attention.


The hotel guests were mostly families with young kids and retirees who missed their grandkids, so there were plenty of others to play with.

Our visit to Mazatlan coincided with the Carnevale celebration this year, and they have a HUGE parade of floats on Mardi Gras. Daniel thought it was pretty spectacular, but he was more interested in the tractors that pulled the floats than the floats themselves.















Both of the kids love the sand and water, so we'll be taking more vacations like this. Daniel things that everyone who is swimming is a "scuba diver" and he wants to be one too, so he'll be going to swim lessons once he turns 3.

Rachel's sign language took a big step forward in that she now knows "Ball" and can sign it and if you ask her to find it, she'll do so. Ball is significant because it's not a "need" like food.

And that's about it for now.

Love

A.D.R.E.