Jingle Bells

Our son the singer. I am continually entertained as much by him as he is by all the simple joys of life.

More holiday cheer

Snow! Finally! It's so beautiful! Guillermo is in HEAVEN! He's also still very much awaiting Santa's arrival...

Holiday spirit

This has been the most fun holiday season so far. It's so fun to watch Guillermo learn about the magic of Christmas. He is so excited about it. We went out in the frigid weather to cut down a tree this weekend (it was about 5 degrees with the wind chill). Although freezing, it was fun to watch Guillermo help his dad cut down the tree. After about 10 minutes, tears were shed over a frozen face, but it was nothing that a nice nap on the car ride home couldn't fix. Later in the day, we decorated the tree which was nothing short of the cutest thing I've seen in a LONG time. Guillermo was interested in each ornament (still is, in fact), and insisted on hanging decorations. He spent the evening just looking at the lights and playing with some white paper that he pretended was snow. The cleanup was terrible but worth every moment. Below is a tidbit of Guillermo's Santa description. He pretty much wakes up and goes to bed talking about Santa..well, and the few scenes of Polar Express that he's seen.

New hat and new words

Here is a pic of G and his new hat from Auntie Lindsey. I think I might have to get a bigger size, but the kid doesn't want to take it off! We have been enjoying Guillermo start to talk like a big boy in the last weeks. It's amazing how quickly it happens once it finally starts. My favorite talking moments are when he wants everyone to watch him and he yells, "Me WATCH!" from wherever he has decided to put on a show! Actually a lot of his chatter contains the word "me". I think this is the theme of two! Today at lunch he was looking up and saying "Up!" and then down, and saying "Down!". He also as started counting (he can count to 2!) and learning his colors (green, white and black being favorites). So far 2 is the best yet!! I don't even mind the tantrums and other "two-ness" now that we can actually have a discussion!! It's such fun to watch the little dude turn into a boy. I'll miss the baby, but I love watching him grow.

Doctor G and his poor patient!

Guillermo turns TWO!

We spent the weekend celebrating Guillermo's 2nd birthday with Grammie and Grandpa Kukuk. The great joy is that we get to extend the celebration by taking a trip to see Grandma Norma in a few days too! What a great way to ring in a new year with grandparents all around!? My lucky son! Guillermo was MUCH more into his birthday this year. He keeps pointing to himself, saying, "Boy". Things have changed so much in the last months. It's AMAZING to see how fast these kiddos grow up. I really do with I could slow time down. I can't wait to see what this year holds!

Please refrain from judgment at the sound of my oh so loud voice during our birthday song! I was holding the camera and therefore am a lot louder than everyone else!!!

Family Farm Visit

Look at that mountain view from Skagit Valley...so beautiful. Guillermo enjoyed his visit to see cows, horses, donkeys, lots of pumpkins and especially Grammy and Grandpa Yellow! We are discussing purchasing 1/8 of a steer for winter eating from the cattle farm shown above. Amazing place!

For Grandpa Yellow and Grammy M

This one's for you guys. He spent the morning yelling "BABA!" He uses this term for all of his grandparents...lately, he's been pointing to planes yelling it because we've been telling him about his airplane trip to see Grandma Norma soon. Anyway, had to snip this up a bit because it was too big for Blogger (in other words, the quality is poop).

Play date with our new friend

Today we met with Jeanine and Andy for a play date at Audubon Park. It was 40 degrees...winter is almost here! Here are the boys together (they are 1 week apart) having SUCH a great time. They both went into tizzies when we had to leave. Guillermo came home and went straight to bed! Jeanine and I are both looking for more friends in Spokane and both sort of new here. She came by way of LA (an Angelino!). We are currently planning to meet a LOT this fall and winter!!

Happy 23 months

A little late...but not forgotten :) Guillermo is almost two. All his little buddies are turning two, so we are attending birthday parties. It's fun to see how much they have all grown since the last round! Guillermo is talking up a storm all of a sudden. He still uses mainly one word options, but is starting to put words together. Yesterday on the swing, he said, "Push, swing, high!". He is in love with all things truck related. He likes to spend most of his time in the garage pretending to work or cleaning up the house. It's so funny how he's such a boy, but also really into things that I do too. At preschool today, he got out the mop and broom upon entering the classroom. Once he had cleaned for a bit, he went and got the play shopping cart, put his favorite doll in it, and proceeded to fill it with food from the play kitchen.

The fair

Forgot camera like a loser!! These are from my phone. That llama thought he was hot stuff!

Back to school

Guillermo started co-op preschool last week. This is year two. He is in the toddler class again, and although I was afraid he'd be the oldest and biggest one there, it didn't happen. There are several kiddos within a few months of each other in the 2 range. There are also a few babies (Guillermo loves babies...he calls all kids babies-even 7 year olds!) who are fun to watch and see interacting. This is a picture of snack time. Guillermo found a little friend who ate his fruit for him. I am betting he will sit by her every week now! He is at the far end of the table watching his teacher take a pic from a different angle.

22 months

Another month old yesterday! These last few months seem to have brought a lot of growth and changes for our little guy. He is such a sweetheart one moment and yelling at the top of his lungs about the strangest of things the next. This is what it means to be two, I suppose. I keep telling him that he's two, and he smiles and looks shy about it. Along with the tantrums has come a deep need to be in mommy's arms 24/7. It's so funny because even though he's so mad he can't think straight, and he's calling for daddy to come save him, in the same moment, he climbs into my arms for love and cuddles. I think it must be hard to be two. He seems to have come to a little standstill in his talking for now. He keeps adding words, but isn't really putting them together yet. Not worrisome because we know that once he can put them together, there will be no stopping the stream of talking! I can't wait, and yet, I'm afraid :)

Anyway, the little video below was taken a week or so ago. This is Guillermo's new favorite activity...along with pushing the lawn mower (not when it's running!) around the yard, drinking hot tea like grandma and eating pickles.

Happy 21 months!

Guillermo turned 21 months today. It has been an eventful day!


First off, summer leads to much naked time at our house (well Guillermo is naked, Bill and I are USUALLY clothed), so this morning during some naked time, Guillermo started to get the "I am about to pee on the floor" glint in his eye. I quickly reminded him that if he needed to pee, he could use his potty. He marched right over to the potty, sat down, directed me to look away, and peed in his potty. When I finally decided to look at him (not wanting to infringe upon his privacy), he was holding his potty pot upright asking "What's this?". I started to race over toward him, but couldn't make it in time to stop the boy from pouring the full potty right down the front of himself. Ah, potty baptism. How's that for a 21 month birthday present!? Luckily, Guillermo had no issues with being covered in his own urine! Mommy, however, was a little grossed out!

Second, all we have been talking about is new babies since both Kristine (right on time) and Lindsey (a little early!) had their new baby girls this week. This is not very exciting talk for Guillermo. In fact, I was commenting on how adorable little Lydia is earlier today, and Guillermo went and fetched the book that his grandpa had made of photos of his first year...he wanted to look through pictures of himself as an adorable newborn, no doubt. So, we paged through the book for a while until he realized that he had successfully stopped all new baby talk and got bored.

Fun at the park

Guillermo and Aiko had fun playing at the park together today. As you can see, Aiko is soon to be a big sister, so these are her last few days of solo time with mom. She is 5 weeks older than Guillermo, but looking at her, you'd never know it. They have such a fun time together. I'm glad they have been able to hang out almost every week since they were 4 months old! We are all excited to see if she's going to have a little brother or sister!

20 months

Hard to believe my little guy is almost 2 already. Time flies! Here is a recent pic thanks to Lindsey Dene (I don't seem to take as many pics these days!).
Guillermo is turning into quite the toddler these days! He likes dancing (spinning being a favorite of late), chatting, cleaning (as always), copying mom and dad (wearing our shoes and clothes is big fun as well as wanting to use big people cups, chairs, etc.), and generally just doing toddler things. One hilarious new word is 'Kukuk' (my maiden name) for 'cracker'. He runs around saying, "Kukuk, kukuk, kukuk...". Guillermo also likes to make motor sounds...he has perfected motorcycles, trucks and the coffee grinder to date. Most often heard at our house, though, is "What's that? What's this? Who's that?". Grandpa Yellow keeps saying that at least he isn't asking, "Why?" yet, but considering how fast things go, I'm sure that is just around the corner.

Bubble day

After yesterday's adventure with bubbles at school, we decided to have a morning of bubbles at home. Guillermo has a new hobby. Our session ended with the dumping of the bubbles and howling while being carried inside...but it was fun while it lasted!

Happy 18 months!

And he turns 1.5!

Guillermo's unofficial weight is 31 lbs, though he fluctuates between 29 and 31 on our scale at home. Not sure how tall he is--we'll find out at his appointment in a few weeks! I was talking to Bill about his (Guillermo's, not Bill's!) language skills the other night, and commenting that some 18-month-olds can use 2-word sentences. I was saying that Guillermo isn't at that level yet, and went on to tell him how all day, Guillermo says, "Daddy bye-bye". Bill looked at me and said, "Babe, that's a 2-word sentence.". So, Guillermo has one 2-word sentence! Other words include, "ball", "bird" and "meow!" to name a few. New feats include using the big boy slide at the park, climbing the slide from the bottom to the top, spinning around in circles, fake falling with a dramatic flare, collecting rocks, watering the lawn and hugging the cat gently. Six more months until the big T-W-O!

Fire station

Here are a few pics taken by a friend from our co-op of Guillermo and his first fire station experience...he fell in love at first sight.


Taking me around the station...literally pulling me the whole time!

More interested in the camera at this point..that fireman kind of scared him.


Whoa that's high! A fireman went up it and back down...100 feet. Also, this sky is one of my pro items for Spokane. It was 85 or so yesterday...not one cloud...anywhere.

I was obviously intrigued by the ladder, but Guillermo wanted nothing more than to check out the truck stabilizers on the ground. He wasn't all that into the ladder.

Giving the scary fireman the look from inside the engine.

Stories

So, Guillermo has done a couple of cute things lately (well, especially cute since, as you know, most of the things he does are cute!). Two stories stand out:

Owww!
Guillermo's little friend Aiko came over to play the other morning. This is a common past time for the two of them--they've been getting together weekly since they were 3 months old or so. As they get older, they are starting to notice each others' existence and get excited to see each other. They run to each other and look at themselves, etc. They are also starting to play side by side and share key play items. Well, this particular morning, Guillermo was very excited and moving furniture around, yelling, etc. (this is something Aiko doesn't do). When Aiko and her mom were on their way out the door (a slow process at this age), he accidentally pushed one of our chairs into Aiko, pinning her against a window seat. Aiko, of course, wasn't happy at all. She cried, quit breathing, turned blue. I had moved the chair and Guillermo telling him that he had hurt Aiko. He watched her with a quivering lip until she stopped crying. Soon after, Aiko was leaving with a smile on her face, no damage done. She was actually trying to run back in the house for more play after they left. But, Guillermo somehow got it into his head that she left because he hurt her. He kept touching his head and saying "OW!" (he does this when he hurts himself) and then looking toward the front door and saying "Bye Bye". All during lunch when I asked him if he'd had a fun time with his friend, he would touch his head, say "ow" and then point outside and say "bye bye". This lasted until his nap--I actually tested him to see if he still remembered after he woke up, and he didn't. Anyway, it was sweet to see his reaction to making his friend hurt. Very sweet boy (when the mood arises anyway).

Marry me?
So, the other night, Guillermo noticed Bill's wedding ring and was trying to get it off so he could play with it. Bill kept saying, "This is my wedding ring, it's not for play", but Guillermo was intent on getting that ring. Finally Bill said, "Guillermo, you have to be married to have a ring like this....will you marry me?" Guillermo looked right at Bill and said, "NO!". Now, I'm sure he wasn't actually saying no to the question (he says no about pretty much everything right now...including when he's shoving food he really likes into his mouth...if you ask him, "do you like this?", he'll shove it into his mouth and say, "no", but in the case of Bill's question, the timing was perfect.

Happy St. Patty's Day

We painted in co-op today. We scrubbed his hands, but I left his face till we got home since it was rather messy! I'm not sure what he's doing in this pic, he's got a book that he's trying to post on the wall, I guess. More pics on Flickr...

Happy 16 months (tomorrow)!

The little one is now 16 months old!

Weigh in on our scale (he likes to weigh himself) is 29 lbs.

New words include: dirty (doht or doh-ty), woof (this means dog), truck,
mommy (well, he has said it directly to me one time...so I'm counting it!),
no (he practices this by himself but hasn't said it to us about anything yet...sometimes he'll sit under the kitchen table and say, "nononononono" for long bouts of time).

New talents include the above, telling us when he has gone potty or sometimes when he's about to go (we bought a potty for him last weekend but he likes to climb on it more than sit on it), jumping, walking backwards (backing up).

Christmas "chant"

This video was taken by my dad at Christmas dinner. Guillermo likes to play follow the leader (or should I say "lead the followers") but he doesn't share the role.

First haircut

The video is a little weird, but you get the gist (I had to speed it way up to make a 10 minute ordeal about a minute). G is starting out the new year with a new hair style. He got to go to his dad's ultra hip dude salon, Porter's (he was the only one there without tattoos!). A good time was had by all and mom didn't have to say goodbye to the long curls in back...thus, not one of us shed a tear!



**Here are before, during and after pics: