Mr Snuffles’ Adventures in Gilbertlandia

Weekend photo fun.

We’ve had a great weekend, beginning with going to the open house at Beto’s school on Friday morning. It was a lot of fun to watch him do various activities with his classmates and see how his social skills are really developing. Then that afternoon we had a family trip to the ice cream parlor. Beto loves going and sitting in the toy car while he shares a strawberry ice cream cone with his mommy. On Saturday we went to El Remate, which was Colima’s first power plant. It’s a beautiful drive through the countryside to get there, and then a short hike through some woods to get down to the plant itself. We had a good poke around the rusty old equipment and a nice picnic. Luke took quite a few photos, many of which are now in Beto’s gallery. Enjoy!

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Christmas vacation

Beto is back at nursery school today after about 2 and a half weeks of Christmas vacation.  This means I have a little bit of time to do things like update his gallery and blog!  I’ve uploaded a bunch of pictures of all the fun stuff he got up to over Christmas break.  I thought I’d also take a moment to update y’all on what’s new with him developmentally.

Beto’s been talking a lot more recently, saying multiple new words a day.  It’s pretty cool and he’s absolutely delighted when he tries to express something and we understand what he’s saying.

He loves books, art projects, music, animals, running laps around the dining room table, throwing and kicking balls, taking all the cushions off the couch to make obstacle courses or cars…man, that boy loves to pretend that he’s driving!  Whenever he sees a picture of a vehicle, he’ll point to the driver’s seat and then to himself and say ‘Bo’, which is how he says his name.  When I ask him where I’m going to sit, he always points to the passenger seat.  He loves to make cars out of cardboard boxes and uses anything vaguely circular as a steering wheel, then tells me to get in the back.

He’s really starting to do a lot of imaginative play.  He feeds his baby doll or decides that it’s time to change the diaper on his froggie.   His Matchbox ambulance likes to stop each of the other cars at every lap to check their tire pressure.  Yesterday he played by himself for 15 minutes, which I think must be a record, as he still really wants Mommy and Daddy to play with him all the time.

When neither of us are sick from all the new nursery school germs, I try to take him outside for a good long play every day.  We’ve got a few really nice playgrounds here in Colima now, and he loves to go climbing, sliding and running in circles with other kids.   Sometimes we take his tricycle out and he works on mastering that or we just take a long walk through the neighborhood at Beto speed.  I always return carrying rocks, flowers, leaves, etc as he really likes to collect things!

All in all…he’s a pretty typical 2 year old.  Oh, except he insisted that Luke read a Hemingway short story to him last night, before bed, instead of one of his own picture books.  That’s just weird!

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Birthday Boy!

Wow…we’ve all made it through another year! Beto celebrated his 2nd birthday at the Parque Regional. This is where Colima’s zoo is, as well as a small lake for paddle boats, lots of picnic area and…dum dum dee dum…CYCLOVIA! Cyclovia is a special course built for cycling, the perfect place for the birthday boy to try out his brand new tricycle! We took a picnic and birthday cake. Beto drank way too much horchata and had all sorts of fun experimenting with his new wheels. There are lots of pictures of all the birthday fun in Beto’s Gallery.  Enjoy!

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Federico Froebel

Beto will be finishing up his second week at nursery school this morning. He was running and giving his war cry as we walked there yesterday morning…he does seem to be adjusting to the new routine and enjoying himself! PE is his favorite part of the morning, although he also enjoys playing with sand and rocks, music class, and mooching food off the other kids at snack time. When he leaves school he waves to the other kids, and blows kisses to his teacher. He always likes to point at the playground equipment and tell me that that’s where he plays. All in all, things are going well so far…it is weird though, to see him doing something new, and wonder if it’s because of something he’s learned at school or just another new development or what. I haven’t quite adjusted to the idea that he’s out there learning and doing stuff without me!

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Mommy goes to nursery school

Yesterday morning was our first parents’ meeting at Beto’s new school, the Instituto Federico Froebel. The academic director gave a bit of a speech, and then all the parents were sent off with their kids’ teachers. Beto’s teachers actually ran a mini-version of what a typical morning at the school will be like for Beto’s grade (Maternal), and all of us parents got to be students again.

Normally the kids sit down and have a home-packed breakfast not long after they arrive at the school. They didn’t let us parents eat, though!

The English speaking teacher went first and showed us what a circle was, and then held up a bunch of different objects and had us name them (tortillas, plates, wheels on a toy truck, etc) and say whether or not they were circles. Then we got to run to the playground equipment and find all the plastic circles from a bunch of circles, squares and triangles that had been hidden around the grounds. Then we got to come back to the work tables and make caterpillars by gluing circles onto pieces of paper with pre-drawn caterpillars.

Next it was the turn of the Spanish speaking teacher. She changed the theme from circles to parts of the body and did a bunch of different activities, singing, dancing, scavenger hunt, etc all relating to the body parts.

Beto’s new teachers are both very nice, very energetic, and very well prepared. I think he’s going to be quite happy with the wide variety of activities and the smooth pace at which everything moves along…Beto’s not a boy that likes to sit around waiting for things to happen! We visited quite a few schools before we selected this one, so were feeling pretty good about our choice, but now after the parent day I feel even more sure that this is going to work out very well for the young man. Especially as it turns out that there will be just three other kids (all boys!) in his class.

He starts next Monday, and will be at the front gates in his uniform with freshly scrubbed cheeks at 8:30 in the morning. His school day supposedly lasts until 12, but what they do at first is just send each kid home when they reckon they’ve had enough for that particular day. They say that normally after the first week they’ve all adjusted and are happy to be there for the full morning. One mother, who’s daughter is in Kinder 1, which is the year above Beto, says that her daughter started crying on the days she *didn’t* get to go to school. Hopefully Beto will love school that much too!

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New pics!

Yes…new pics! That is all. :)

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Firsts…

I finally brought myself to take Beto in for his first haircut. I thought I was going to cry as his little curls were buzzed off…it was like watching him transform from baby Beto to little boy Beto, right in front of my eyes. Beto, on the other hand, wasn’t at all traumatized, as he sat on my lap pawing through the hairdresser’s candy jar during the whole procedure.

Beto’s been hard at work taking care of his first science project. He has 6 tadpoles that we collected from the little lake in Parque Hidalgo. He asks to go out back and see them many times each day and is quite happy to do his part in taking care of them, which is to give them some scoops of fresh water every day. Then again, he’s happy with any activity that involves scooping water! Several have back legs now and one sprouted front legs today. Luke’s certain that we’re raising cane toads.

Beto’s also been exercising his creative side with a new song that he’s written…the lyrics consist of ‘yeah yeah baby, baby yeah yeah!’. As well, he’s choreographed a dance which involves twirling in circles, and lifting your legs way high up in the air. He’s also been spending a lot of time walking backwards, and looks like he’s practicing his moonwalking while he does it. He recently discovered that he can stand on his tippy toes, so I imagine that that’ll be added in to his dance soon.  He’s a very busy little boy!

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Happy Fathers’ Day

Papí…eres lo mejor,

y te amo mucho!

 

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Someone says Nana!

A couple of Saturdays ago, we had a web-conference with Nana (Beto’s Australian grandmother) so that we could wish her a Happy Mothers Day, etc. The next day, Jennie was recounting to him how they’d been talking to Nana when he raised his voice and announced “Nana! Nana!” several times! Of course, I was too late with the camera, but I did manage to get him saying it once, at least.

 

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As for his other Grandmom: don’t feel too bad! He’s just really been getting into his nana sounds recently, as evidenced by his eagerness to say ‘banana’ and ‘manzana’ (apple). It was, however, very sweet; especially on Australian Mother’s Day!

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Favorite Things

Gilly is well and truly in the throes of toddler-dom now, with babyhood a quickly fading memory, so I think it’s time to bring his favorite things up to date. The young man has changed so much in such a little time!

Favorite foods: Cheese, banana, avocado, mandarin, oatmeal, cherry cheesecake, whatever Mommy is trying to eat

Favorite books: From Head to Toe; Spot Loves His Daddy; Richard Scarry’s Best First Book Ever; The Shy Little Kitten; Buenas Noches, Gorila; The Tooth Book

Favorite songs: Any that contain ‘la la la la-ing’

Favorite activities: Playing with our foster kittens, watching ‘Signing Time’ videos, watching ‘Doki’ videos, play-doh, building tube and pipe structures with Daddy, playing in the curtains, water games in the kitchen sink, watering plants/playing with the hose, climbing absolutely everything, (cheating at) peek-a-boo, riding the train (and escalators!) at Zentralia, being chased around the couch, being rotated on a twirly chair or tire, being held upside down, being attacked by the kissing monster, scattering pegs around the patio (and cleaning them up again!), feeding Mom or Dad his meal

Favorite hangouts: Parque Hidalgo, the zoo, the beach

Favorite words: dog and ¡ya! (enough!)

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