Seattle Chronicles, one

Our vacation to Seattle resulted in hundreds of pictures and stories, some of which will make it onto the blog. I'll do what I can :)

First off: I wish I was back there. Not only do I love it, and miss friends and family who live there, but we left on Saturday morning at 5am when it was 60 degrees out. We arrived to a 104 degree Dallas, and found our A/C was not working in our home. Ricardo bought a small portable air conditioning unit which has been running non-stop in X's room, where we have set up air mattresses and are living in a relative, squashed, and still slightly warm and sticky comfort. We had a guy out here today giving us an estimate...and it looks like we'll be replacing the entire system (hopefully tomorrow). To the tune of wayyyyy too much money--we pared it down to the basics, but I was shocked at how expensive A/C replacement can be! Some people buy cars, others just replace the A/C in their homes. Anyway, in the long run it should be better for us. A newer, more efficient unit will save money on bills, energy, and be better for the environment. I'll be a much happier and nicer person once I'm not hot.

So, venting done. Now on to our Seattle trip! It was wonderful.

We flew out on Sunday, after church. American Airlines strikes again and did everything they could to make the trip miserable, which included leaving us sitting on the tarmac with no cool air for 45 minutes while they tried to figure out who was on the plane. X decided to use that time to scream. Eventually we took off, she fell asleep, and the day got better from that point on. We saw Auntie Alisha and Unker Paul during our layover in LAX. They brought snacks and treats, and it was lovely to visit with them for an hour.

Monday night we went for dinner at the home of Abby, Caleb and Susanna. Susanna is a doll, she shared her toys and put up with Xaris who was being a little rambunctious and napless, it being a different place and time zone and all.

After we had been there awhile, Susanna skooched over to me, pulled herself up, and gave me hugs. This of course sparked Xaris' interest, since she loves giving hugs and kisses. She hurried on over to join in the action! Susanna sandwich!

Which then turned into baby-loves.

I love how Susanna was patting the top of X's head...too cute!

I once again feel the need to say: I think they are destined to be forever friends.

babble

X has lots of words.

We understand what *some* of them mean.

Here's a quiz, take your best guess (some are obvious, some not so much). Those of you we've seen recently might have a better chance at scoring high :) They are spelled out phonetically, so it looks like how she says it.

1. Ah-wah

2. Ga-jah

3. Mah

4. Mama/Mami

5. Papa/Papi

6. Nah-Nah

7. Apee (sometimes api-api-api-apeeee)

8. By-eeeee

9. Ah-meeen

10. Beee-beee

11. Ah-yah

12. Woah

:) Have fun!

just keep swimming

X has been in swim lessons for the past month. Not much to tell, except that she was the only one in her age group so we went into the "little fishes" class so she could be with other kids. They were all a year older than her, so a bit more advanced on the cognitive development (you tell them to kick, they move their feet, etc), but she did great! Here are pictures from her first class.

She's able to climb out by herself now...

On Saturdays Ric usually takes X on his run and then they play...

in which I try to learn how to post videos.

I know I've posted videos in the past, apparently those were by accident, because I still don't really know how to do it.

The biggest problem is getting the videos off our camera, and onto the computer. But, this was taken with my phone, and so here goes!

it's....ginormobaby

We spent the evening of the 4th of July with some dear friends John and Debra. I've put pictures of them and their darling boy Marshall up on the blog before.

Debra and I ended up pregnant at the same time, Marshall is not quite a month older than X.

And he's been double her size nearly their entire lives.

It's still about the same. She's not yet 20 pounds and he's pushing 40. He's a good few inches taller than her as well.

But he's sweet as can be, they played together and he did a good job of sharing his toys and his dinner with her!

Only one mishap, but it's mostly her fault because she couldn't run yet so she wasn't quick enough to get out of the way in the "let's-run-in-circles-around-the-crib" game. She's doing much better at running now, she's nearly there!

They both love balls, and cars, playing in the pool and food. Destined to be best friends for life I imagine. Xaris surprised us all by showing how she could fit through the small "cat door" John and Debra had cut out of a baby gate across the bathroom--so the cat could get away from the baby when needed. Apparently not our baby, she just followed the kitty right through!

We enjoyed such a wonderful dinner (thanks John!) and conversation with our friends, and are so sad that soon they will be moving several hours away. Plus, we were in unincorporated Tarrant County, so fireworks were not only legal, they were abundant! We got to sit and watch amazing shows from all sides. X just sat on my lap and cuddled for an hour, and eventually fell asleep. I enjoyed the rarity of the stillness...because she's rarely that still for that long. It was delightful...but just as delightful were the photos that followed, a few days later Debra sent the pictures she and Ricardo had taken while we were there.

There's some great perspective and angle tricks here--the difference in size between these two really isn't as much as portrayed. But don't you just love how it turned out??

middle earth

On our way home from San Antonio we stopped at the caverns as a treat for all the kids (and adults) who worked so hard on mission trip.

We were our own tour--but somehow we got one extra person in our group (orange shirt in the front)--she didn't seem to mind and chatted with a few of our group and made some friends.

X getting ready to go to middle earth. What's this on my head?

Pink's your color papa!

Our long string-bean baby in her moby ready to go underground! Look at those long legs. Still 5th percentile in weight though...

Admiring the elements.

Papa taking a picture of his girls...

We saw some bats. Not a dwarf, ring-fellowship or misplaced hobbit to be found.

Mission Trip 2010

We made it!

Mission Trip # 2 with a baby. Although she is much more of a toddler than an infant. (not sure which is harder/easier, to be honest!) She did great though--quite a trooper the whole week, especially considering she had nothing close to a routine or schedule while we were gone.

Gramama came along to be "team X". Her mission trip job is baby support--she took care of Xaris when I needed to do my job. A lot of my mission trip work included them...like delivering cookies to each of the work sites every day!

Of course everyone was happy to see both her AND cookies.

One team had a 'family' of blue army paratroopers (who had lost their chutes). X gnawed on one for awhile. I think another ended up in a water bottle and one got sawed in half by a chop saw. This one didn't have it that bad, comparatively.

Saturday morning before we head back home:

3 Generations of mission trip girls.

Work team group photos:

Team TieDyePteradactyls (Ricardo's team)

Team Sweat (just sweat)

Team Bearded Crew

The whole group

Mexico trip

Last week we had a lovely visit to see Abuelos, Tios, and Primos!

La Xarisofi did marvelously on the plane--slept the whole way there.

Of course, that might be due to the fact that we had a 6am flight, had been awake since 4am, and hadn't gone to bed until 1am (X included). We rented our car without mishap (a first), when to IHOP for breakfast, did some shopping in El Paso and then headed to the Mexico side of the border.

She jumped right on in to play with all her cousins.

We tried to get pictures...hard with several babies/toddlers.

Febe is the next oldest after X. She's just 5 months older, but pretty big!

(That's her getting held by her older sister, next to Xaritas).

One of the items on our shopping list in El Paso was a grill. We got a small one and brought it down with us, so we could have a carne asada on Friday. However, this meant that Thursday we watered the dirt to ensure there would be less dust when we were all outside on Friday. The best part about watering the dirt? Playing in the hose.

X tried her first taste of carne asada, but still preferred eating an avocado.

And playing in the dirt.

Oh, and playing in the trash.

Apparently, playing in the trash is what makes her really happy!

Look at that filthy (but still oh-so-cute), happy girl!

Mama-snuggles for a not-so-happy girl after she threw dirt in her eyes and had to get them washed out.

I was washing the dishes later, with X sitting on the side of the sink. She was pretty happy to kick and play in the water (our sink at home doesn't have this kind of space--this was a new adventure). It turned out to be a great idea to just take off her clothes and wash her the same tim I washed the dishes.

A good adventure! Next up: Mission trip in 2 weeks!!