getting tato ready for bed

para nena

A New Cousin for Tato...

On June 17, 2009 at 11:30 in the morning a healthy MAX JAY SCATTON made his grand debut into this wacky world. He was born 7 lbs 2oz to Ric's little sis Marybeth and her husband Jaime. Everyone is doing well. We are SO excited for them and cannot wait to see everyone - hopefully soon. Tato has been coming home from school saying, "baby, baaaby" over and over again. He must know!

Happy Birthday Papa!

JUNE 16 - Ric turned 30-something today and as a little surprise I arranged for our good friends (l-r: Rob & Stephanie Clark, and Tim & Denise Petrosky) to meet us out for a nice dinner at Andiamo's in Livonia. OK, so I thought it was a nice surprise until afterwards Ric told me how tired he was and thought that I was taking him out for an intimate dinner at The Melting Pot. He said that he had a great time nonetheless and that he was surprised! I could see that he enjoyed himself and I can't believe I was able to finally surprise him : 0 HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAPITO! Next year is a BIG one! I should also mention that it's Ann's birthday today too. Lots going on in June.

Mad-town in May

SURPRISE! Happy Birthday Tita Jojo

Indulging in some yummy carrot cake birthday cake.

Ice cream & carousel ride at Ella's Deli. Tato loved the carousel SO much that he blew a gasket when he had to leave.

The clan of kidoodles after breakfast at Bluephie's.

One more pic before our drive back to Plymouth.

MAY 28-31: We visited Jojo & Zach in their hometown of Madison, Wisconsin. Ric had never been before but we all knew that he was going to love it. We were able to visit our good friends Tonya & JJ and their kids who moved up there. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to see our other friends Mindee & Jeff, and Pat & Alison. We'll make more time next time we visit. Hmm, I think we know more people in Madison than in Plymouth. Anyway, Mom, Ann, Jojo and I did the Race for the Cure 5K walk together. We celebrated Jojo's birthday, which was a fun surprise for her. And of course, we ate A LOT, played Scrabble, and watched HSM3. For as much as we did, we still didn't seem to have enough time. BTW Ric loved it so much that he wants to move there!

Shortest Parade on Earth

MEMORIAL DAY 2009- We got up and got out to see the downtown Plymouth Memorial Day Parade, which we were told was pretty short. How short? We had not idea. In the almost 8 years we've been living here, we've never gone to one. Well, after walking for 15 minutes, waiting for another 15 minutes, we finally got to see what could only be described as THE shortest parade on Earth. I believe it lasted about 10 minutes and that's only because there was a hold up. It was still neat to finally see. From what we were told, the Labor Day Parade is much better. I do have to mention that Tato did get candy. I told him to wave at the people in the parade and they'll throw him candy. He thought it was the neatest thing.

Bagel Day

MAY 17 - When I ask Tato, "What's your favorite?" He answers with "Bagel Day." His teacher told me that the kids love bagel day at school and he is one of them for sure. Just don't try to take away his bagel before he's finished or else you'll get a very upset Tato.

Construction Zone

MAY 15 - This afternoon's activity involved taking an old toy and reusing it in another way. In this case, Tato chose to go up, when the blocks are actually meant to slide down. I was pretty impressed with his steady hand and getting all of those blocks stacked without knocking a single one over. He even took time to admire his own work.

Mother's Day

Ric down in Florida visiting his Mama for Mother's Day Weekend.

Me and Tato celebrating Mother's Day Weekend with mi familia in Michigan.

Talk much?

Mateo's vocabulary and sentence formation seems to be improving more and more each day. I'm amazed that at 27 months old, he knows the names of so many objects.

This afternoon Ric asked Tato: "Do you want to rock?"
Translation: Do you want to play Rock Band 2?
Tato: "Yah, Papa. Rock!" in his cute monster voice."

He proceeds to walk over and as he's grabbing the microphone he actually says, "microphone."
Then he grabs the drumsticks and says, "Mama, drums."
I just couldn't believe that he knew and could pronounce microphone.

As we're playing, I'm encouraging his singing. He says, "I'm doing it!"
When the song is over he says, "One more song." or "Another song.

Those 20 minutes were just so cute and precious. And he didn't want to stop.

A Day Out with Thomas

05|02|09 - The Greenfield Village in Dearborn was hosting two weekends of "A Day Out With Thomas." Yes, THE Thomas! I don't know who was more excited? We couldn't wait to see his reaction when he finally gets to see Thomas live. The Village was packed with kids wearing their Thomas The Tank Engine clothing and parents toting around TTTE backpacks and balloons. Well, when Thomas finally came around, tooting his horn and all, Tato just kept pointing and saying, "Thomas, alla, Thomas,..." No yelling with excitement just repeated words, probably in disbelief. He even got to meet Sir Topham Hatt. We also ran into one of his classmates from school. What an awesome day it was for the 3 of us and the nice weather helped too. Since Ric purchased a Family Annual Membership, we look forward to going back again and again and again.

Check Please!

03|13|2009 - Today was Tato's 2-year check up with Dr. Newcombe. I was very eager to find out how much he had grown from his previous check-up at 18-months old.
Here were the results: LENGTH * WEIGHT
24 mos: 36 in./90th percentile * 34 lbs/95th percentile
18 mos: 34.5 in/95th percentile * 29 lbs/80th percentile

We certainly have a healthy, happy, growing boy on our hands.

HSM 4?

03|22|09 - I wish that this picture didn't come out blurry but it still cracks me up. When Ric left for his Sunday bike ride/race, I put in High School Musical 1, while I cleaned up and Mateo played in his playroom. It kept me entertained and Mateo really does love the music. At one point when he heard Vanessa Hudgens' character start to sing, he got up and raced to the TV, grabbed the Rock Band microphone and started singing into it! NO JOKE! It was so cute to see. I'm venturing a guess that he might have a crush on Vanessa/Gabriella or be a future star of the HSM franchise. One thing is for sure, he has good taste; she's half Filipino too : )

IKEA Incident

03|21|09 - Today we went to the IKEA close to our house to look for new office furniture. Since we were there around lunch time we decided to eat at their upstairs cafeteria. The kid's meal came with a chocolate milk which normally isn't a problem, however it was a mini milk Chug bottle. I got up to look for a straw and when I returned this is what I saw! OMG! What happened? Ric let him drink straight from the bottle and it poured all down his front : 0 He's was wearing the brand new t-shirt I got him from Barcelona. It is TOTALLY ruined! Oh well, what can I expect from a 2-year old, right?

PEACHES!!!!!!!!!!

1. The clenched fists of excitement.

1. The facial expression of excitment.

3. The physical response of excitement.

What does Tato like to each more than canned peaches? I really don't know because he'll pretty much each anything. However, he gets EXTRA excited when he knows he's getting peaches. All of a sudden no other foods exist in his little universe.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

03|15|09 - What a wonderful surprise! Beautiful mid-March weather in Michigan : ) It was an absolute must to take advantage of it and head over to the neighborhood park. It was no surprise to find it teeming with other parents, kids, and dogs. Mateo can be such a little daredevil though. He'd watch the bigger kids climb up the jungle gym using the 0pen arched "ladder" and had to do the same. I was way more nervous than he was of course. He only slipped once and I was there the whole time with light support just in case that would have happened. Phew! Makes me nervous just writing about it.

BCN/ROM

This the photo Ric texted over to me on my birthday.
It brought tears to my eyes.

Trevi Fountain - Rome, Italy

Parc Guell by Antoni Gaudi - Barcelona, Spain

02|27 - 03|08: What should have been a birthday trip for both Mateo and I along with Ric and Mom, turned into a girls only vacation. Although, I missed my little man SO much, we had an amazing time and hope to return with all the guys next time.
I'd like to give a special thank you to Tia Nena and Lola Mary for coming out to Plymouth to visit with Ric & Tato for a few days while I was away. From what I heard a great time was had by all. We hope to see you soon. Thank you again.

More Cake

02|26|2009 - Later that night we had our own little family celebration with a Hokey Pokey Cake from Whole Foods. It was yummy. If we could just get Mateo to blow out his candles. He's not to sure of the concept just yet, but he did enjoy the cake.

Guess Who's 2?!

FEBRUARY 26, 2009 - It was 2 years ago this day that Mateo Valeriano Orca Lung came into this world. Every day since then has been a true blessing. Yes, even the tough days. Today was a extra special because he a room full of classmates and teachers to celebrate with him. Towards the end of the day, Ric and I brought in mini-cupcakes to share with is class along with a box of Thomas The Tank Engine Pockey (his all-time favorite treat) to give each one of his friends. To my surprise the teachers had a birthday crown for me as well, since my birthday was just 3 days later. They all sang Happy Birthday, licked the frosting off their cupcakes and headed out to play. One of his teachers Miss Mary told me that he had been telling everyone all day that he was "2!" It was a great day! CUMPLEANOS FELIZ TATO!

Delinquent!

Yes, yes! I know that I deserve a tongue lashing from some of you. I'd even deserve to have my blogging license revoked if there were such a thing. However, just before and ever since my return from Europe my world has been crazy busy to put it mildly. Things have been going well, no worries there. Just a bigger territory and a new company policy of no uploading pictures onto the company laptop, which takes away some good blogging opportunities. My apologies, but I'm back to make it up to you...

ABCs and 123s...

I'm so proud that Tato has mastered his ABCs, 123s, and colors before the age of 2. Ric and I don't know what the average age of a child is when they learn these things, but regardless, it's a point of pride for us. He's always shown great interest in books and learning the alphabet, but not really the numbers. I figured that would come much later, but I was sorely mistaken. What felt like in 10 days time this month, he had learned his numbers, colors, and shapes! He even knows "oval" and "rectangle." I find it incredible that he can even attempt to say "rectangle" at this age.
Sure enough, wherever we are, he shouts out a letter, number, or shape that he sees. One night when he was washing his hands after dinner, he announced, "H-O-T. HOT!" I couldn't believe it! Maybe they taught him that at school but man, was I impressed at that moment and continue to be.
My only concern is that his love of "Thomas and Friends" totally takes over. The little man LOVES "Thomas and Friends" so much that when he wakes up in the morning he asks to watch "choo-choo trains." To balance things out, we have him watch an educational video before choo-choo train videos. He has to end the evening with a book, even if it is a Thomas book. However, we only keep learning books upstairs in his room, which thankly doesn't bother him at all.

Bilingual Fun

Tato is nearing the end of his 3rd session of Bilingual Fun classes. It's been such a joy to see and hear the progress he has made. He's really picked up on the context of the words, which is amazing to me because he's so young and hears English 97% of the time.
* He calls Ruari and Teagan, "chicas." That had us laughing all weekend.
* He sleeps with his Oso (teddy bear), Mono (monkey), y Rana (frog).
* He was playing with is oso and saying "Oso, salta!" (Translation: Bear, jump!)
* When you ask for a "beso" he gives a big kiss.
* He knows quite a few verbs: salta, corre, camina, besame, abrazo, arriba, abajo, vuelta, baila, escucha, busca, aplauda, and possibly others that I'm not aware of yet.
* When he's looking for something, he puts his hand upto his forehead when you/he says, "busca."
* He asks for "pollo" and "agua" at dinner time.
* He says, "hola" and "adios."

Everyone says that kids are sponges at this age and Tato has proven to be no exception to that wonderful rule. Everyday is new and exciting : )

POLLO!!!

Jan. 23 - After the Hands-On Museum, we went to Chipotle for an early dinner. We were so early in fact that we were the only customers there for a few minutes. We sat Tato down at the booth closest to the cashiers and went up to order. While I was waiting my turn to order, Tato stood up and yelled, "MAMA! POLLO, MAMA!" Anyone and everyone could hear him clear as day. I couldn't help but break into a huge, proud smile. Then I heard it again, "POLLO! MAMA, POLLO!" As the lady working the counter put it, "that is the cutest thing." It really was! Tato was reminding me to order him "chicken." I was so proud that he used his Spanish word appropriately. Later, that same lady brought him over a sticker for such good use of his Spanish. The only embarrassing part was the decibel level. Man, is he one VERY loud boy! I couldn't imagine him any other way. Te quiero my corazon.

An Afternoon At The Museum

My little engineer in the making.

Buttons and wheels... enough said!

Even with the smock, he was soaked!

Jan. 23 - I wanted to take Tato to the Ann Arbor Kid's Hands-On Museum yesterday but we got yet another very cold and snowy day, so we took him Sunday afternoon. It was a lot more crowded that I thought it would be but it wasn't a bad thing. Kids enjoying a learning environment, bring it on! This was his first trip to this museum, so his attention span was that of a gnat until we got to the water works in the Toddler Room. He was splashing around and going from station to station. He also really enjoyed playing house with another little Asian girl. When I asked him to put the dishes in the sink, he cleared the entire table! It was very cute. We know he really enjoyed it because he didn't want to leave.