Sweet November

November is nearly over and I can't believe it. This month we celebrated my niece Josefina's quinceñera. We spent hours decorating the backyard with paper flowers and filling the trees with candles hung in little glass jars.
It looked really fabulous... until about 45 minutes into the party when we were hit with a torrential downpour. It only lasted about 25 minutes, but that was long enough to destroy the decorations.

vicki - griselda - franco (in front) - josefina - eduardo

paco - deo - me/Gabe - susana
the lovely birthday girl, who really wants to go to Disney World instead of have a party...

Gabe captivating the "older women"

Gabe...will be 18 months old next week and is changing constantly. Since I don't seem to be capable of keeping his baby book updated, this will have to serve as record of his life milestones. He now boasts a variety of "words" in a bilingual vocabulary.

"ha" = hot

"zhou" = shoe

"doe" = toe

"mam" = mom

"ba" = bottle

"ba" = ball (he differentiates by pointing)

papa (his only clearly definable word to people other than his parents)

"bagua" = agua = water

"ma" which serves as both toma and dame, which are spanish for take this and give me. Mario thinks he is saying toma and dame. I think he is calling me, the person he feels is responsible for giving him things and receiving the things he doesn't want. It's possible he has a larger vocabulary in spanish and I don't recognize those words because I don't pay attention to them.

He is currently obsessed with shoes. He goes and finds his shoes and brings them to me to put on him anytime he is without, and find my shoes as well because he doesn't like me to be without.

He continues to be a major climber, scaling anything available anytime I am not looking. He also demonstrated incredible strength (to me at least) at the park this weekend where he hung from a bar for more than 10 second, multiple times. He also loves the swings and laughs histerically when I push him really hard - NOT afraid at all!

He loves buckles. on his stroller, on his highchair, on my backpack. any kind of buckles. He will clasp them, holler to me to undo them, clasp them again, holler again...it is the only activity at which he demonstrates any attention span.

We have reached the point where attending church is a mere exercise in habit. Gabe will no longer stay in his stroller during sacrament meeting. And he will also not stay on my lap, on the bench, or anywhere near the bench where I am sitting. He will not read books, play with puzzles/puppets/toys, snack peacefully or draw. He screams until I let him out, fights me off, and then runs as fast and far as he can before I catch him. If anyone has some advice here, I'm all ears.

He loves to go for walks outside (meaning him walking, not in the stroller). When I do not have a time constraint (meaning it's okay to take 45 minutes to walk one block) I let him. He stops at EVERY door, touches the lock and pulls on the handle. If there happen to be ants crawling around, he stops to inspect. He often likes to stop, sit down, and sometimes even lay down on doorsteps. He like to pick up cigarette butts and leaves - never a shortage of either.

And one last story not for the delicate of stomach... the other day I bought 5 kilos of strawberries to clean and freeze because they are going out of season and you can't buy frozen fruit here. They were small strawberries, and it was taking me FOREVER to clean them. Meanwhile, Gabe got all wet on the patio, so I took off his clothes. He then took off his diaper, and climbed up on a stool to join me with the strawberries. After a mind-numbing amount of time cleaning, I happen to glimpse him throwing something in the strawberries out of the corner of my eye. I looked closer. He had POOPED, PICKED it up, and THROWN it in the strawberries. I screamed in disgust. I had to wash all again.

The offended strawberries. Hope you have your hepatitis shot if you eat at my house!