Baking with Joaquin

I'm ditching work tomorrow to enjoy Halloween with Joaquin. I love Halloween and one of my playgroups is having a Halloween get together. I figured it was more important to make memories with my child than to deal with the insanity that will be tomorrow. So, in preparation for tomorrow, I decided to bake cookies with Joaquin tonight. I knew it wouldn't be easy, but seriously, I almost ran out of my house screaming...instead I had three glasses of wine.

Joaquin is very much the explorer and like any toddler he loves all the stuff that he sees us use. I'm trying really hard to honor his need to explore and experiment with real life stuff, but holy jeez.

By the middle of our evening the kitchen floor had a solid coat of flour and sugar. Dishes, utensils, pots and pans scattered the entire floor, table and each counter while two cabinets had been emptied and the coffee maker was nearly completely disassembled.

We finally both had a bit of a melt down and we both ended up in a "time out". But somehow after a little cuddling and nursing we managed get it together and get back to business. He helped me clean the kitchen and even helped me sweep. We also picked up all his toys in the living room and he begged me to take out the vacuum. He then vacuumed. Not well, but it was still pretty awesome.

Miraculously the evening ended with a heaping plate of cookies, a semi-clean house and both of us in smiles. It's pretty cool how much he can actually help, as long as I open myself up enough to accept the little toddler ways of helping. I'm not sure how soon I'll venture into another adventure like this...but I have to say, even after all the insanity, it was kind of fun. Maybe next time I'll even manage to take a few pictures.

The Gnome

I was going to wait until after Halloween to unveil my Gnome, but realized the pictures are already in my flickr photo stream which you can obviously see on the right of this page. So here he is...my little gnome. More pics to come soon!!!


He's not mad, he's just in awe of the very "happy" lady trying to get all the kids in a parade.


Here I think he's just thinking she's crazy.


And now we have a grin. The boots finish this outfit off but the little man just wouldn't allow both beard and boots on his body at the same time. Hopefully I'll be able to get a shot of the whole ensemble come Friday.

New lens

I got a new lens the other day. Not really a purchase I should have made, but I needed something to make me happy. It did the trick. Only problem is it doesn't auto focus on my camera, so I've been practicing a lot and loving every minute of it. Some are obviously sharper than others, but practice makes perfect!

The Baby?

The other morning as I was getting ready to head to work, I was emailing a colleague to set up a morning meeting. In the email I told her I would "be there soon, as long as the baby didn't wake up". The baby? What baby?

I continue to refer to Joaquin as "The Baby". The problem is, he isn't a baby anymore. When I call him "the baby" I'm sure people are expecting to see an actual baby, not a walking talking toddler.

So what do I call him now? The kid? The toddler? My son?

None of them quite have that ring of "The baby", plus he's still my baby!