Morning Quiet Time

Both Luis and Ashley like their quiet morning time. Luis leans towards an episode or two of Bob the Builder and Ashley is happy to have a rest on the couch.

Ready for Work

Luis is ready for work at Daddy's airport - complete with Daddy's badge and Daddy's shoes. Diego would have been more than happy to trade roles with him for the day.

Then, Luis wanted me to try on the shoes and the badge -- and then he took this picture of me himself. He's getting much better with the camera.

Mary & Luis visit Seattle

Luis and I went to Seattle Nov. 5-9 to visit our friends Erika & Skylar. We got to know them in Bombay when David, Erika's husband, was working with Diego on the airport project. After we left Bombay, David, Erika & Skylar stayed for another year before moving to Seattle this summer. David was back in Bombay for a couple of weeks at the end of October/early November so Luis and I went up to help keep Erika & Skylar company in their new city.

The five days were a whole lot of fun, in spite of COLD, WET weather. We did quite a bit of stuff out of the house, all of our outings were punctuated by playing at the house. Luis loved loved loved all of Skylar's toys, her books, her playdoh, and her cat (Kitty Mac). Skylar was great about sharing her things with Luis but was diligent about reminding him that they actually belonged to her, which invariably set them off on a "it's mine" fight. Skylar was very concerned that Luis was going to actually take her toys home with her; Luis was confused about the temporary-ness versus the permanence of the phrase "mine".

Skylar had these wonderful window crayons that they used on the wall of sliding glass doors.

I loved loved loved having five whole days to hang out with such a dear friend, to catch up on all that is happening in life. Although we are now at least on the same continent, being two time zones away still makes chatting complicated. We definitely made up for that during our visit (as well as consumed an amazing amount of coffee!!)

On Friday, we went up to the Seattle Zoo. I had not anticipated how the rain would make the cold feel colder, so Luis spent the entire morning feeling chilly. The highlights of the trip was watching an elephant get a bath ("and do a little elephant-bath dance" as the kids observed), watching a cunning squirrel snatch up the little pieces of the trail mix snack that the kids dropped, and seeing moss.

Luis & Skylar enjoy a snack (while Erika shoos off the squirrel)

Luis & Skylar in front of a Tapir (the only "animal" shot we got from the whole trip!)

On Saturday, we attempted to have a "park crawl" to sample some of Skylar's favorite parks across Redmond, but it was entirely too cold and too wet. Poor Luis wouldn't even get out of the car. Skylar, who is clearly fitting into her new environment insisted on a few pushes on the swing before leaving the first park - with HEAVY rain at about 45-degrees. Since outdoor play was out and we couldn't quite face an entire day in the house, we took the kids to Kohl's and Target (because they were across the street from each other. The kids had a great time perusing the toy shelves at Kohl's and then enjoyed warm chocolate (as opposed to hot chocolate) and cookies at the Starbucks kiosk at Target before picking up a few essentials (including cold allergy meds for Luis).

On Sunday, we met up with my old HITT colleague, Tim Ericson, his wife Marie and their daughter Karina at the Seattle kids museum. I haven't seen Tim in about four years and it's been almost seven since I've seen Marie. It was my first chance to meet Karina, who just turned two. Luis had a tough start to the museum with much whining and crying, but eventually joined Karina & Skylar for some fun. I heard from Erika that the museum was great. But I seriously spent the first 45 minutes (and about 1/2 the museum) trying to manage Luis's meltdown. We missed the main exhibit, which was Sesame Street Presents: The Body. All three of the kids really seemed to enjoy the art room, which we found at the end. There you could paint at easels, color with markers, use scissors (always a big thrill for Luis). There were more organized craft projects for older kids and I think even some modelling clay stuff. It was excellent.

After saying goodbye to the Ericsons, we enjoyed a few of the rides that were just outside the exhibit hall. Think State Fair rides. Erika took the kids on a little roller coaster - which they all loved. Then, I took them on the carousel; also a hit. Unfortunately, Erika and I lost track of time and it was 2p by the time we got the kids home for naps. And we were supposed to be at my cousin's house for dinner by about 4:30. And both Luis and Skylar were desperate for sleep.

If you look closely, you can see the GLEE on both Luis's & Skylar's faces

After too-short naps, we piled everyone back in the car to head over to Randy & Michelle's house (from my Whitfield/Schweickart branch of the family tree) for an early dinner. My other cousin Vicki and her family were also able to join. Luis hadn't seen his teenage second cousins since the summer, but quickly realized how enamored he was with them. And Annalise and Camile were great sports to play with Luis (and Skylar). Dinner was delish, and the conversation was a lot of fun. After dinner, All of the under 20 crowd enjoyed some Guitar Hero - with some of my generation eventually joining in. Both Luis and Skylar particularly enjoyed the music, "playing" guitar and playing the drums. They did much, much dancing, too. Though we stayed an hour later than we'd planned, the visit seemed MUCH too short!

Monday was a quiet day of packing up to head home. After breakfast, Skylar wasn't feeling well and quickly developed a fever. What was originally thought to be the flu (or H1N1), turned out to be Hand Foot and Mouth disease (which me might have brought with us - thought Luis had impetigo the day before we left; in hind sight it could well have been H, F & M).

Luis Teaches School

One day while Diego and I were playing with Luis at the playdoh table, he walked over to the chalkboard, picked up this stick and said, "So. First you start with your letters." I can only imagine that he is emulating his teacher, Miss Jill.

He then picked up a piece of chalk, made a squiggly line on the chalk board and asked if we knew what he'd drawn. Since Luis had told us that first we started with letters, Diego and I naturally guessed letter. Sometimes we were right, it was a 'J'. But sometimes it was a 'firetruck' or it was 'laughing'.

[This chalk board was left behind by the owners of our house, or more specifically by their daughters Audrey and Samantha.]

Potty Time

It's very exciting to me that going potty has become almost a solo event for Luis. He can get to the potty without reminders, pull his own pants up and down, and almost always gets everything inside the potty. Yeah yeah yeah yeah!

[Confession: I took this picture on Nov. 1, but have gotten way behind in posting. Should have posted sooner as Luis had a poop accident today. Oh well, accidents happen!]

Halloween - A Success!!

So after my worries about Luis and his costume, it turns out that Luis loved his scary box. And wore it (most of the time).

And Diego, being the great Dad that he is, dressed up too, as a Mexican Wrestler (think Nacho Libre) - though Caleb and Luis referred to him as "That Scary Monster".

In VA, kids started ringing doorbells by about 5p. So I was ready with my TWENTY-THREE pounds of candy then (we were told we'd get close to 500 kids). But no one came. Luis was playing outside and I kept looking up and down the sidewalks, but no one came. Finally at about 6:00, I suited up Luis (and Diego suited up himself), and we headed out to about 10 houses of friends on our street. Luis did a great job - telling everyone that he was a Scary Box! and saying Trick Or Treat!!

Luis's inaugural Trick or Treat was next door, at Mr. Kyle's

Our friend Caleb came by to say hi to us and Kyle & Tim, dressed as a bear. He and Luis were very happy to show each other their costumes.

Turns out that Luis is not much of a candy kid. He got a Tootsie Pop at one house and opened it up at intermission (he liked the box costume but found it a bit cumbersome to walk in, so we split our route in half and took a break). After that, he'd go to houses and say Trick Or Treat!, but not hold out his candy box. The adult would invariably ask if he'd like some candy. Luis would hold out his Tootsie Pop and say, "No thanks, I have a LOLLIPOP". It was pretty amusing.

After making the rounds, Luis ditched his costume and went next door to help Kyle & Tim hand out candy for a while. They were hosting a bit of a pot luck for some of the neighbors. Someone made chili, someone else jalapeno cornbread, someone else jello shots (I'm not kidding, 125+ of them), and someone brought chips & salsa. Having been inspired by my friend Cara (who was inspired here), and feeling worried that I wasn't displaying the right amount of Halloween enthusiasm, I made some Halloween themed treats, including little Mummies, Fingers, and Monster Mouths.

Diego and I took turns passing out candy to the masses (seriously, at least 400 kids actually showed), enjoying the delicious food, and monitoring how much candy Luis actually ate (less than 6 bite-sized pieces, we think).

Luis eventually returned home to help us pass out our candy. He was good, but r-e-a-l-l-y slow. When he bored of passing out candy, he focused his attention on taking the rolls of Smarties out of the bowl. With each one, he'd say, "Look Mommy, I found ANOTHER one." He found about fifty. FIFTY. Then he got frustrated that there weren't any more, so we had to sneak them from his pile back into the bowl without him noticing, simply so he could say, "Look Mommy, I found AN-NOTHER one" one more time. I kept telling myself, at least he's happy. And he was.

Luis sorting his Smarties while I talked with Suzanne

Luis, who had not seen a whole lot of candy before yesterday kept asking the names of each individual candy. At one point, he told me that "m&m's is Spanish for Skittles".

This morning, I asked Luis if he had a good Halloween, and he said yes. When I asked him about his favorite parts, he offered:

"Giving out candy to the Trick-or-Friends"

"Going Trick-or-Treating and saying 'Scary Box!'"