A busy Saturday

Since I'll be home with Joaquin and the baby for a while, as of June 16th Joaquin will no longer be in pre-school. I figure I should do some home preschool type of activities with him to keep up the enrichment he was getting at school. I'm not going to drive myself crazy with it, but want to do something here and there. He has a few obsessions lately, and one of them is firetrucks, so a firetruck theme for the next few weeks it is! I made a list of a bunch of firetruck themed picture books and off to the library we went on Saturday morning to get them all.

I am really embarrassed to admit actually, that we have yet to take him to the library. I haven't even stepped foot in a public library in about 7 years. I know, right? I would have put all the books I wanted on hold to make it all easier, but since I didn't have a library card yet, I had to do it myself this first time. It was kind of hard with Joaquin all over the place checking out all the books while I was trying to search for different authors while hunched over or crawling on my hand and knees...but we managed. I also found a few books on becoming a big brother and we ended up with almost 20 books on our first trip. In the car as we were leaving Joaquin told me he felt happy, when I asked him why, if it was because he had so many new books, he gave me a big nod with a huge smile. Adorable. I found a bunch of activities all themed around firetrucks online and will start doing those with Joaquin once I'm off. I'm looking forward to this next adventure with Joaquin and will be sure to document and blog as much as I can!

After the library I had to make a quick trip to the mall to get a bridal shower gift. I have it down now. I pull up the registry at home, circle my options, walk in the store and ask them to point me in the right direction. It took us a whole five minutes, in and out! With a kid like Joaquin, I just don't feel like dilly dallying in Crate & Barrel! Then we stopped off at Old Navy just because their kids clothes are always so cute. As we were checking out Joauqin saw a giant toy dispenser thing with big high bounce balls. He asked me so sweetly "Mommy, can I have a ball please?" They were only a quarter so I said of course and let him put the quarter in and turn the knob. He was in love. In love with a pink and blue high bounce ball. We got in the car and headed home for nap, about half way there while still cuddling with his ball, out of the blue he said "Thank you for my ball, Mommy." My heart melted, "Of course babe, you're very welcome."

During his nap I snuck off to my bridal shower for a couple of hours and returned to Joaquin and Dan getting ready to head to the zoo. I was already pretty tired, but figured why not. We spent a couple of hourse wandering the new Elephant exhibit and shared a big soft serve ice cream. As we were leaving I had the totally random idea of going to the drive-in to see a movie. So we got home and packed up our stuff and headed back out.

We got there a bit early, but Joaquin had fun pretending to drive the car. We battled the big battle to get his PJs on and I totally expected him to pass out by 9 at the latest. Nope, he was into the dinosaurs as we watched Land of the Lost and didn't fall asleep until the ride home.








I was beat, but days like Staturday are too awesome to complain about. Looking forward to the next!C

His first day...

Dan did the drop off this morning because he goes into work later than I do. I was so sad to miss it, but Dan took this picture for me as they walked out the door.



Just like with me a couple of weeks ago, Joaquin dove right in and barely said goodbye when he left. I called in the mid-morning and they said everything was great.

When I went to pick him up this afternoon I walked in the classroom and it took about 2 or 3 minutes for him to even notice me! I watched him get up from the rug and sit down at the table to get his snack. He was so cute! He followed his directions and sat so patiently for his apple and crackers.

Then he saw me...he squealed "Hi Mami!", but stayed where he was and went right back to hanging with his buddies. After snack I actually had to bribe him with Bita's house (my mom's house) to leave! He even napped for almost two hours, it was my biggest worry because an unnapped Joaquin is not a happy Joaquin. But he was just fine!

It makes me feel so much better to see how much fun he was having. I think it's so funny how people talk about babies that co-sleep and nurse longer than the normal year will have "attachment issues". Joaquin is so the opposite! He just totally impressed me today with his outgoing and social personality. It makes me happy.

Joaquin starts preschool tomorrow.

I'm not sure how I feel about it. Part of me knows he'll love it. But the other part of me is just plain mad.

We have been lucky that he has not had to go to any sort of formal childcare in his two years. We've always worked it out with family and friends. When Dan lost his job last year, he took over childcare. It worked for a while, but now Dan is working during the tax season and the in-laws have done more than their fair share. So off to preschool our little guy goes.

But I'm ready for MY turn.

I went in with Joaquin for a few hours the week of Christmas to test the waters. As soon as we walked in the classroom he left my side and dove right in. I stuck around and chatted with teachers and played with the kids. He loved it and cried when we left, so I'm pretty sure tomorrow will go fine...at least until nap time. We'll see how that goes.

There is so much more to tell...so much about how I'm feeling these days. But I'll save that for another post. Now it's time for me to go attempt some sort of sleep.