Abuelita

Tato was very attentive while being read to in Spanish.
Off to a good start because Bilingual Class begins July 8.
June 30 - July 6: Abuelita Graciela (Ric's Mom) came to visit.

We all enjoyed having her here and look forward to her next visit.

First Trike

Ric found this Kettler tricycle on Craig's List for a rock bottom price.

Now Tato has his first bike or in this case, his first trike.

Getting some professional assistance for proper fit and form.

Safety first. Always wear your helmet.

In his case, a giant chicken helmet for his giant noggin. I love it!

My favorite trike picture of My Little Man.

Big Boy Words

Tato is quite the little chatterbox, more than half of which we don't understand but he's developed a vocabulary that we're so proud of :

- BABA: baby talk for "pacifier" of course. When we were waiting at the doctor's office the other day, a newborn started to cry while Tato was sipping his milk. He took the sippy out of his mouth, pointed, and said, "Baby, baba." The mother turned around and said, "Yes, she does need her baba." Good words : )
- BABY: I think this is an obvious one.
- BYE-BYE: he says this with a limp wrist wave. He's practicing his open and close hand wave.
- CAR: we were brushing our teeth one morning and he looked out our window, down to the driveway, and saw my car. He stopped brushing and said, "car." It's stuck so far.
- CRACK: the abbreviation for "cracker" I told Ric that we need to correct this on fast or else Sister Joyce (Director of St. Mary's Child Care Center) will start wondering.
- DOG: I think this one is obvious too. He calls "hey, dog."
- DOOR: I'm not sure how this word came about in his vocabulary but he uses it correctly.
- GO: when it's time to leave, he runs to the door and calls out, "go."
- HELLO: whenever he hears a ringing sound, he calls out "Hello?" He even walks around with his play cell phones and starts chatting away. He begins every conversation with "Hello?"
- JUICE: probably because it sounds a lot like "shoes" because he only drinks milk. However he does sign (language) for milk.
- NANA: banana
- PAPA: sadly "Mama" is a rare occurence.
- SHOES: a new favorite word and object of his. He loves counting his shoes.
- SIT: when he's standing on his picnic table seat, he smiles and repeats, "sit" because he knows he's suppose to be sitting and not standing. Typical.
- TATO: he says his name A LOT. He'll even pat his chest and repeatedly say "Tato"
- TWO: I'm trying to teach him to count and evidently "two" has really stuck. He even holds up his hands and tries to count his fingers. It's SO cute.
- TREE: he loves trees, so I wasn't too surprised when he started saying the word.
- UP: this means both up AND down.

So for those of you who are curious about his daily progress, his vocabulary has been a big part of it. It's amazing to hear and see him grow like this. He understands so much more than we thought a child does at this age. Really he's pretty much right on track. I asked him where his Retro Rocket was and walked into his playroom, pushed a button on his Retro Rocket then brought it out. Amazing! We're loving it : )

16 Month Old

June 26 - Tato's 15-month check up, came on his 16-month birthday. I was anxious to find out how much he has grown. Here's where he stands: 33 inches tall and 27 POUNDS! Need I mention the size of his head? Let's just say that it remains in the 95th+ percentile for size.
Hey, there's a big brain in there.

Running Season

It's time to break out the running shoes and the jogging stroller! We love to head out to a local park to do some family trail running, Mr.Quincy included. Tato loves to break the silence of the woods by screaming out loud or yelling, "Tato, Tato, Tato,..." all along the trail. This weekend, Ric scored an awesome new hybrid cycling/running trailer. Pictures to follow soon...

Music In The Park

Music In The Park has started. This means that every Friday night during the summer, the residents of Plymouth converge on Kellogg Park for live music, dancing in the streets, and family picnics. This also means ice cream at Dairy King, and that's Tato's favorite part of the evening.

Rolling

Tato loves pulling his rolling backpack around, even though it's empty, he still enjoys it. My little man is growing up so fast.

Superstar

Guess, who's trying to do his impersonation of Tom Cruise from the movie "All The Right Moves"? He was so digging the sunglasses : )

Patchman

Well, we're still trying to correct the torticollis. It's come down to getting a 3rd opinion, where it was recommended that he get his eyes checked. It turns out that that's what was keeping him from getting fully corrected. Dr. Jacobi was great and advised us to use ocular patches 6 hours per day, alternating eyes, for 2 weeks. It worked! When Tato has his eye patch on he straightens his head. Go figure. It's worked so well that we've continued with the eye patches. Don't worry, Tato loves wearing the eye patch. He stands still, closes one eyes, and leans his head towards us. The only thing is that he has run into the furniture a few times.

St. Mary's

Monday, June 23 - Today Mateo started at a new center, St. Mary's (part of St.Mary's Hospital). It was a bit tough on all of us, but Ric and I believe that it was the best decision for his care and personal growth. It has been a long time coming, but it finally happened! We put our names in while I was still pregnant, but never got the call. Then when I was returned to work, we were fortunate enough to have Or watch Mateo until he was 13 months old.

St. Mary's Child Center is created, designed, and run by Sister Joyce who has some pretty tough standards that we really appreciate. All of the staff have some kind of degree in childhood development as well. There is a cool Skyroom, which is a huge indoor play area for the kids to enjoy on sunny, rainy or snowy days. They can even ride bikes around the little track that borders the play area. He also has a huge classroom with it's own outdoor playground. He loves to play outside so much that he didn't want to leave the other day.

Next Thursday is "Red, White & Blue" dress-up day and they'll have an Independence Day Parade. We're excited for him.

Shrek of a Surprise

May 22 - Today Mateo got a surprise in the mail - a Shrek cap. I have no who sent it and/or why, but the package did come with his correct name and address on it. I promptly took it out and put it on his big head. He liked it so much that he wouldn't take it off. So thank you to whomever sent out for his Shrek cap.

Tato Meets Starbucks...

June 4 - I am a bad mommy for having allowed this in the first place, but as you can see Mateo is drinking my Iced Venti DECAF Vanilla Latte. I got out of the car, put my stuff on the back deck, then went back to the car to get Mateo out. When I went back to the car to get the groceries out, I found that Mateo had climbed the stairs and started drinking my Starbucks. Luckily, I had the camera in my car, so I grabbed it and snapped a couple pics of my drink thief.

Disney

May 16-20: The Orca Family convened in Orlando for a first ever Orca Family Disney Vacation. We were all so happy that Nina and Thomas and even Thomas' Mom were flying in from Denmark to join us. The weather was HOT, but the shows were fun, and we all had a great time. Here are a few of my favorite pics...

Random Tato Pics

Ready for food
Are we there yet?
Hello?
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Hi

Cute Date...

MAY 9 - While Ric and I were grooving at a 70's themed fundraiser downtown, Or and Tato had a date night at Thai Cafe.

Heading to the restaurant

Whoa! Tato and da giant! Actually that's Nopee's son (Nopee is the owner of Thai Cafe.) Now Tato really looks like a little man.

Don't worry I can do it myself.

Going home with a belly full of Lad Nar with Tofu - Yummy : )

Park It

APRIL 7 - Look who's a big boy now.

He can even walk to the park - with adult supervision, of course.

What the?

March 24 - Mateo had his back to turned to me as I was packing our things in the morning to head back home to Michigan. When I turned around and looked down, this is what I found! I have no idea how he found this coffee cake, but he certainly appeared to be enjoying it. There were crumbs everywhere! He's lucky that Tia Nenita loves him so much. Sorry about the mess. What else can I say? Tato is an eater.

Thank You Easter Bunny!

After Easter Mass, Mateo got a nice surprise...

The Easter Bunny delivered lots of cool stuff for him this year:

* a super cute book of boy poems "Dirt on My Shirt"

* Ric's favorite, "A Bug's Life" on DVD

* the CD by Alexa Ray Joel

* organic bunny graham crackers

* froggy slippers

* froggy doll wearing bunny ears

Although, I think his favorite was the 29 cent fake grass - figures!

Easter Buddy

Mateo did so great at his first time with the Easter Bunny.

He looked right at the camera and smiled : ) Yay!

You can't read his t-shirt from Tia Nenita, but it reads

"Si, Se Puede

Obama '08"

It seems that Obama supporters just keep getting younger.