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...