Dish pan hands

FOR NANI!!!

I know, I'm terrible about updating, but, well, things have been crazy!

So, Monkey realized his love of doing dishes. I promise you I am looking forward to the day he can actually clean the dishes (and am not so delusional that I think he'll still like doing it!). Maybe he'll take after Nani and love dishwashing ... maybe.

Here he is at Nani's lovely casita.

It started just with washing his hands, then escalated into full-blown, use the scrubber, dishwashing.

Don't forget to rinse!

Look at those tippy-toes!

Carrot Fingers

To be sure, there are a ton of pictures to share from this past month. But, I'm going to try and take it slow and start with our little trip to Oatman, Arizona.

Oatman is this great little town up in the mountains near my parent's house in Lake Havasu. It was a mining town and the honeymoon spot for Clark Gable and Carole Lombard. What I love is that in a world where most animals are domesticated and the descendants of wild animals, the burros here are the opposite.

Anyway, on to our own Oatman story. Besides the cute town, shops and little restaurants, the big attraction are the wild burros that come down from the mountains. The first trip we took with Monkey was soon after home and I was one paranoid mama! I was convinced he'd be eaten by a donkey. Well, the worst thing that happened on that trip was that his Cissy introduced him to ice cream ... not such a bad thing, but it sure was funny! (I nearly forgot that she also tried to put him on one of the babies. The townsfolk frown on this and a few ran out shouting ... mortifying at the time, funny now.) This time I was calmer ... and he got bit!! No worries, just a little scratch and a terrified Monkey (and mama). The first donkey we'd seen was a baby and that cute little guy sucked on Monkey's fingers.

He loved it ... one of the next was an adult and Monkey had a great time passing on a carrot (you can't feed the babies carrots).

Unfortunately, Monkey remembered the cute baby and the next donkey that came up to him, he decided to forgo the carrot and just held out his hand. When Monkey held out his chubby little fingers, that donkey was convinced there was a carrot somewhere! He sure was wrong!

Now, when he's showing off his attitude, I tell him I'm going to get his carrot fingers!

The offending ass.

We did have a nice day; the weather was great! There are such fun shops and we had a nice lunch while listening to some live music - Monkey loved that! He also loved seeing all of the "bikes" (motorcycles).

One final funny story. Cissy wanted to take a picture with Monkey at this Jackass Junction sign (below). She didn't realize that it was a swinging door, though! A few things happened simultaneously. Cissy tried to get as close as possible to the door and nearly fell through when it swung backwards. At that exact moment, a donkey across the road behind me started feeling a little frisky toward one of the other donkeys. His loud declaration of amore made me nearly fall over. Cissy thought it was some kind of alarm and was trying to quickly move from the door (there, however, was a small ledge that she was trying not to fall over). The pursued donkey raced across the street right in front of me, with Don Juan right behind her. I definitely wanted to keep my family out of the middle of their courtship (and whatever direction it decided to take - good or bad), but we still got the picture! The look on Monkey's face most likely resembles mine!

I accidentally deleted my little signature, but, as always, this is The Mommy.

Okay, another one! We hit Olive Garden before we went to the museum. Service sucked awful. However, the salad and gnochi soup were obviously quite good. Cissy might not have known how good they were for herself, though!

Gnocchi soup ... ooooooooo ... lovin' it!

Oh, wondering why the Monkey is nekkid (well, shirtless)? He dumped juice down his shirt in the car which required a trip to Target because I couldn't get the shirt cleaned ... my grandmother I am not!

Children's Museum

Two posts tonight, but I needed to get them up, so make sure you see our lego pics!!

We had SUCH a fun time with Cissy. Monkey is doing fabulous and it's so amazing to see how much he's growing and learning. Yes, he still asks, "where Cissy go?", but today he actually answered himself and replied right away, "at Papa's house". It's so cool to watch him and see that he actually "gets" that Cissy didn't disappear, but that she went home.

This little room is SO fun! It's about the native people from this area and they have these cool drums and little robes. We love it!

THIS was hysterical! He was listening for the ocean!

More tomorrow!

Nani Noo Noo gift!

Nani Rose is always real good to us! I forgot to take a picture of the Dora blanket, but I will do so tomorrow, along with the Dora towel.

But, she also got Monkey a bunch of those chunky legos. We heart chunky legos!

Especially since they don't hurt when your two year old flings his arm around to knock them flying!! YAY!

And, as promised ... more socks pictures. :) Stylin' hardcore.

Temper, leg warmers, heels and food

Monkey is very into socks lately ... namely MY socks. There will be more coming, I'm sure, but here are a few of his "leg warmers". I can't remember why at the moment, but he was throwing a tantrum.

The tantrum wasn't hard to keep up with Dora on tv.

Cissy brought a pair of my shoes that I'd left in AZ. Seems Monkey also enjoys wearing mommy's shoes ... make sure to check out the hi-frickin-larious vid!

Monkey loves getting a ride at Walmart!

Tonight we went for dinner at Cracker Barrell. Monkey had a delicious meal of mac 'n cheese. After he finished it, he decided that Cissy's dinner looked pretty good.

We also had a really fab dessert.

But, these two obviously thought the other had something better.

I love ... LOVE watching these two together. I have the chance to see my son through a different set of eyes and I see my mom through his. My life would be perfect if McH were home.

Back with a vengence! We have nice weather for about five minutes a year here in good 'ole Texas. The mornings aren't too bad, but it's been super muggy after about 11a. Yuck. Here's monkey finally wearing the sunglasses I bought him 2 years ago. We were playing out in the back ... he was having a blast until the ants found him ... ugh.




And, the glasses are gone. I'm bummed this came out a little blurry. Looks like he's wandering a jungle!


And ... my nosey nelly! Part of the fence was rotted, so for a few months he's been able to see pretty clearly into our neighbors backyard and probably wondering why they have a lovely manicured lawn and he gets the jungle!




We also made our first trek to Chuck E. Cheese since he's been old enough to get it. I couldn't believe how these two played ... first of all, she's a year younger, though you'd never know it by size! Second, she's a brawler and my little guy is a lover. But, they had a good time together until his other girlfriend grabbed his attention!

BALLOONS!

This is the true love of his life ... well, after mommy, daddy and Cissy. Depending on the day, she's first and sometimes the other grandparents and friends are on his list!

If Daddy is accurate at 300 meters, than he's sure going to match that!

These two are so cute. She typically ignores him for the first hour, but after that she's practically ... well, actually literally dragging him around by whatever part of him she's able to grab and hold on to. Girl knows what she wants!