Chuck E. Jesus

Daniel got a prize bag from the birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese the other day. In that prize bag was a deck of tiny playing cards with Chuck E. Cheese on the back. He had them out and was so excited to find "matches." (It's not too hard when he's matching the backs of the cards vs. the fronts!) He put two cards next to each other and said, "Two Chuck E. Cheese's!" Then he put more and more cards together to make a long train and said, "Look at all those Chuck E. Cheese's!" He looked at me and said, "Cheese's?" Then he began singing, "Cheese's loves the little children, all the children of the world....."

And that's how he began worshiping Chuck E. Cheese.

Bumps and Bruises

If our new sitter calls Child Protective Services, I hope that all of you will vouch that we're good and decent parents:

1) Tuesday: We were at Wal-Mart, and the cart I picked happened to have no working strap. I thought about putting it back and getting one with a working strap, but geez - I'd already wiped it with the sani-wipe and put my green bags in. So I thought we'd try it out. How bad could it be? Apparently, bad. Daniel repeatedly tried to stand in the cart the entire grocery trip. I just kept my hands on him, and we made it through the store somehow. We get outside, and I turn to put the groceries in the trunk. Daniel stands up, and falls backward into the cart. Thankfully, he fell backwards vs. sideways. He got 2 little scratches on his back.

2) Wednesday: Daniel was in the living room, spinning in circles - a favorite activity of his. He got a little too dizzy and fell. He fell right into the sharp fireplace hearth, headfirst. He got a nasty looking bruise and small cut across his right eyebrow.

3) Thursday: Daniel was avoiding going to his room to help get things cleaned up at bathtime. David (teasingly!) started pulling him by his legs to his room. Daniel was cracking up. He thought it was so funny. He got dragged all the way from the living room to his room, giggles all the way. He got a big rug burn across the right side of his forehead.

4) Sunday: Daniel wanted to go outside. Can you imagine? My child spends 8/9 hours outside during the day. We were headed to the backyard. I wasn't paying attention to where he put his fingers - right inside the door jam. I started closing the door behind us, and he started screaming. I saw that I was closing his middle and ring fingers in the door, but it was too late. He has a black fingernail, and it was swollen for that day. (He was looking at his fingers afterward and started pointing at them one by one, saying, "Pink, pink....black!")

That last injury earned him a chupa chup.

Chuck E. Cheese

On Saturday, we went to our first Chuck E. Cheese birthday party. Most of you know that we don't really let Daniel do TV, we don't let him eat many sweets or junk food, and we don't ever actually pay for the rides at the mall. He just sits on them and turns the steering wheels, which is already exciting enough for him (and we quickly whisk him away when another parent actually pays to let their kid ride them - heaven forbid he sees that they move!). So.....Chuck E. Cheese was a huge hit! His favorite rides were the big horse, the little horse on the carousel, and the train. He won two lizards with all his tickets. He officially loves Chuck E. Cheese's. Here are a few highlights:

Crying at the Sitter's

So yesterday was a big step for us. Daniel had his first day of going to an in-home daycare. Until now, we have been blessed to keep him at our house with a babysitter who gave him tons of individual attention.

His last babysitter, Jordan, has been so good to us. Daniel loved her to pieces since day 1. She brought over new books to read to him in the beginning, took him outside even though it was raining, and won his heart quickly. She took him outside all the time, showing him around the house construction sites in our neighborhood - even seeing a snake once! Yikes! She taught him how to say "Yes, ma'am," "Be patient," "Swallow your drool," "Come here, please," "Okey-dokey-artichokey," and countless other things. He learned about mini-vans, loved to drive Clark's truck (Jordan's hubby), and shaped pipe cleaners into "little, teeny, tiny hearts." Daniel's going to miss her, and I'm not just saying all these things because I gave her the link to this site, though I hope she reads it and knows how special she's been to us!

So as you can imagine, moving to an in-home daycare may seem like a little thing for some, but it was huge for me! I was worried sick and bawled my eyes out the night before. We had prepped Daniel a lot about what would happen, and he'd been threatening us by saying, "Mommy go to work. Daniel cry at Ms. Sarah's." However, when I left him Wednesday morning, he just waved bye through the window - not a single tear! Then when I picked him up later, he was busy dancing in the kitchen with one of the other little boys, and Ms. Sarah said he'd been wonderful all day! Who knew? I am so proud of him! Apparently I'm the only one that cried about Ms. Sarah's. I think he's going to do just fine!

Grandma & the Sheikh

We had a good visit with Grandma last weekend. Grandpa was in Canada, fishing, so she made the 8-hour trip solo. We're so glad she did! A few of the highlights:

1) It was my mom's birthday on Sunday, so we celebrated with a lemon birthday cake. Daniel doesn't get sweets very often, so that was a big excitement for him. He didn't know what the white frosting was and kept saying that the "butter" was good.

2) Grandma brought the book "Little Brown Bear Loses his Clothes," and she may have read it about 10 times a day while she was here. I'm not sure what the fascination was, but this week Daniel's been running around saying, "to-whit to-whoo" like the owl in the book.

3) Grandma also brought Uncle Brian's old GI Joe tent. She thought he'd like to sit in there with his stuffed animals...his own little hideout spot. Turns out he liked to play with the sticks that made the tent frame a whole lot more, and the tent only stayed up about an hour. Instead we turned the sticks into drumsticks, vacuum cleaners, and weed whackers.

4) I'm not sure how this happened, but Grandma put a blanket over Daniel's head and started calling him "the sheikh of Arabic." He's been reenacting this all week too.

Unfortunately, Grandma had to go home Monday "to take care of Grandpa because he's lonely," in Daniel's words.

ABC.....Iphone

While I was giving Daniel a bath a few days ago, he started saying the alphabet - in order! Well, at least in close to the right order. He definitely missed a few letters, and "R" was thrown in at the beginning of the alphabet, but overall - it was pretty darn close! I had no idea he knew this, so I asked him, "Where did you learn your alphabet?!" He said, "Abuelo." Aha! Abuelo has an app for that.

Happy Birthday to Mommy!

Daniel doesn't quite understand birthdays yet, but he helped celebrate mine last week anyway. Once David told him that it was my birthday, he blessed me several times that day by saying, "Happy birthday. Happy Mother's Day. You're beautiful." Is he great or what?

There was also some discussion about my present.....
David: "Did you get Mommy a present for her birthday?"
Daniel: "Yeah."
David: "You did? What did you get her?"
Daniel: "A biiiig present."
David: "What kind of big present?"
Daniel: "A big, nice present."
He sure is sneaky!

Neighbor Bird

A few weeks ago, Daniel and I were out for a walk. He loves to go play with all the rocks in one of the neighbor's yard down the street. We were walking along, when he saw a bird among the rocks. I thought maybe the bird was sick or hurt or something because it was just sitting in the rocks. I told Daniel to stay back, but he continued to edge closer and closer. He was about 2 feet away when he told the bird, "Bird have a rock," and he gently tossed a rock toward the bird. (He wasn't trying to hit the bird - he just thought that might make a good gift.) The bird, apparently feeling threatened, stood up and started running toward Daniel, making loud noises. That's when we saw she had been sitting on 4 speckled eggs. Daniel immediately started crying, and I had to scoop him up, out of harm's way. He screamed the entire walk back home and told Daddy, between tears, "Daniel give the bird a rock." He couldn't understand why she didn't like his gift!

We've been visiting the bird everyday (from a distance!) to check on her eggs. She gets a little peeved if we get too close. Daniel had been so excited to see what would happen when the eggs hatched, in his words, "The eggs will craaaack and out comes baby chicks!" Unfortunately, the mother and eggs have disappeared. I hope they all hatched and flew away somewhere safe, but we'll never know!

4th of July

We spent the 4th of July in Dallas with David's family. Here are some pics that I stole from Uncle Brian - thanks! We failed to take any with our camera!

Daniel riding the horse at the mall

Daniel driving at the mall with Uncle Luis looking like he's having fun

Daniel playing at the mall

Abuela playing with Daniel in the fountain by the pool

Aunt Cristi and Daniel with one of the best smiles we've caught on film!

Abuela & Abuelo with Daniel

Aunt Cristi, Uncle Brian & Daniel at Kaboom Town

Mommy, Daddy, and Daniel at Kaboom Town

Daniel did not love the fireworks. I think he would have loved them - if they had maybe been at 7 or 8 o'clock before he was exhausted. Poor baby. He kept saying, "Wanna go home" in a super whiny voice and spent most of the night sitting on my lap, sucking his thumb. It made me feel bad, but that's one of the very few times we've taken him off his precious schedule. He's still catching up on sleep! We really enjoyed seeing everyone - the Diaz', the Sanchez', and the Brady's!

Italian anyone?

ARGH!! Tonight while I was making dinner, Daniel reached up on the counter, grabbed the almost new bottle of Italian seasoning, unscrewed it, and shook all of the contents out on the floor in a matter of seconds while my back was turned. On the upside, my house has the faint aroma of a nice Italian eatery.